MLaaTR: Cluster Wars
by Stone-Man85
Summary: When the Secret Got out... Their Mission Began. Continuation of CoyoteLoon's famous stories. AllisonxDrew; SheldonxOC
1. Trailer

**StoneMan85 Studios**

_A city of advancement was shown, nearly as bright as the sun. advanced cars were driving down the vast roads that encircled all over the town, as well as those that flew above them or hovered off the ground. Even walking amongst the buildings and vehicles, robots were going and walking amongst each other, doing various jobs or just walking by. Even climbing on the building skyscrapers, were various robots that were cleaning or doing something else. In obvious on the first look of it, this city was that of nothing but robots._

_**We had such potential… **_

_A crowd of robots cheered up at a podium; their voices shouting to the heavens and raising their hands with thunderous applause along with them. The figure stood to be someone of great importance; a queen worshipped by her loving followers. And standing beside her on both sides were generals, of different shapes and sizes. And towering above them were two flags sailing in the wind, with insignias of what appeared to be Cs in the shape of gears._

… _**such promise**_

_The inside of a massive factory is shown the manufacturing of thousand and thousands of robots that resembled humanoid cockroaches. There were also giant tank-like rhino-beetle drones being built as well. Not only them, but other robots that each had a unique military design on them. Along with them were other robots of unfamiliar design and purpose._

_**And yet, we squandered our gifts…**_

_The very same robots that were built from the factory were used to wage wars on other worlds. And with them, they were used to 'free' the other robots of those worlds, and enslaved the organics of those worlds. The organics, being stripped, hosed down harshly, and thrown into rags and chains, while being stared down by giant black and red robots, with chain gun attachments on their right arms. Flying above them in a dark and rainy night, mosquito and hornet shaped drones flew overhead with massive bee ships. _

_**And so… DRU-1... **_

_Drew Nabholtz, in his human form, is sitting with Jenny (XJ-9), as the two talk. Him taking his artificial leg off as he oils it, not noticing the Cluster hornet nanobot entering it. _

_**You were destined to be reborn… as one of us…**_

_Drew's bizarre feeding frenzy and behavior in the Tremorton High School cafeteria. His human features then disappeared; melting away to reveal the Nano-Droid that he was transformed into. Later on, after taking control, and the self-destruct activated… Drew's new form and life began with a grin and a saying, "We robots have to look out for each other."_

_Afterwards, Drew's life changed from then on out. Starting with his friendship with Jenny and learning his nano-technological powers, as well as his decision to fight alongside her as her partner in world-saving against the forces of evil… albeit for a temporary time. _

_Their capture and taken prisoner straight to Cluster Prime itself. Their escape and tour of the very planet of their enemy. And where Drew first met the fembot of his dreams; LSN-1482, AKA Allison. Their daring, and almost costly escape, off of Cluster Prime._

_The invasion of Earth's Atmosphere, in which Jenny had victoriously fought against, no thanks ot the efforts of Professor Mogg's power energy source. But all thanks to the efforts of Drew, the Silver Shell, and surprisingly Allison, back at Cluster Prime._

_And then, his mission to stop the Anywhere Cannon, as his one of many missions from being the spy of the Cluster Resistance._

_**The Cluster Empire's Iron Fist is dying of power…**_

_Drew, now sporting a new look, along with Allison, Greaser, and a few Resistance Drones, overlook what appears to be the ruins of a Cluster City._

_(Fade to Black)_

_**A new way of life… must branch out… **_

Drew's standing on a hill outside Tremorton, trying to pick up a signal of sorts.

"There you are," Tuck triumphantly stated to Sheldon who was with him, "Told ya I'd find him. It's instinct."

"Instinct?" Sheldon shook his head as he answered, "He left you a note. I'm leaving; I'll be outside Tremorton."

*********************

Drew is going through the crowded streets, disguised as a golden humanoid drone. He passes through the crowds, completely undetected by anyone; the citizens, the drones, not even the security cameras can identify him. In an alleyway, the nano-droid reshapes himself again.

***************************

"A Friend in Need, is a Friend in Deed," a voice speaks out, spooking Drew out a little as he turned around quickly. A four ½ foot blue robot with a box head monitor, making a smile face with the screen, repeated on a radio frequency, "A Friend in Need, is a Friend in Deed."

The Nano-Droid looks around cautiously, until he looks to the blue bot and asks, "Are… are we alone out here?"

The blue bot shook his head as he answered, "Ah, nonononononononono….nonononononono."

***************************

Suddenly, a giant Cerberus-like beast bot goes right at them. Nearly biting the two in half, Drew grabs the blue bot, and schlerping and morphing into a pair clawed bird feet hind legs. In an instant before the robot caught him, Drew jumped and clawed at the buildings sides, making good time and distance away from the beast.

***************************

A few hikes and traversing down in the Cluster Sewers, both the blue bot and Drew had gone undetected by the mysterious beast. They traversed the darkness, only to climb down and walk into a lighted tunnel way. As they drew deeper into it, they notice that the tunnel now has armed turrets, as well as security cameras.

Looking at the monitors, a white and rust orange bot with a lower torso of a three wheeled trunk with head lights in front, lit up as his nutcracker mouth smirked.

Later on, the two enter what appears to be an underground city, lit up with a strange sun yellow crystal connected to the three mile high ceiling of the city.

In a war room of sorts, a violet and white female robot, a very beautiful fembot with flowing foil hair, rushes up to Drew, embracing him, almost not wanting to let go.

"What's this?" a large muscled humanoid gray stag beetle bot walks up to the blue one.

"I found him, Polaris," Drew answered the beetle drone, "He just sort of bumped into me."

Later on, Polaris throws the blue bot into the wall, threatening him and Drew as he scolded, "You'll lead the Cluster or the Black Mantis' right back to us."

And as such, busting down a door in an unknown location, the Black Mantis bots swarm in. they ransack the place, trying to find something or someone of great importance.

Elsewhere, Drew talks to a bizarre looking robot, who looks like a rag doll of sorts, while a white and yellow fembot talks to Tucker… and Sheldon. "Why is Vexus after you?"

Hiding in a large broken pipe in the junkyard, Tuck and the yellow fembot peek out one of the medium sized holes. Suddenly, they jump back, with the girl covering Tuck's mouth, as a massive claw tried to get at them.

The scientist bot is scrolling through what was long forgotten computer files, along with the blue bot and the yellow bot, searching for something.

"He's one of the Cluster's top scientists," Allison's voice-overed, "Whatever Vexus wants from him, she's going through a lot of trouble just to find him."

Then Drew, Allison, the yellow fembot, the blue bot, the scientist, an unfamiliar bulky white and brown bot along with a white and red bot, with Tucker on Drew's shoulders, are escalated around a ruined and long-forgotten computer library.

In another area, when they demanded answers, the science bot turned to his blue assistant and nodded. The blue bot turned towards the wall, his screen went blank as a small camera lens popped up from the top of his head, and played something up on the wall.

It was an education film, showing both XJ-9 and Drew as Monsters, as the film's narrator explained, "Cluster robots were designed to transform for battle. Powers that were activated by a Gold Chip. Until XJ-9 and the abominable DRU-1 stole and destroyed them in a unilateral strike invasion of Cluster Prime."

*******************************

"I have just the general to take care of our nano-abomination problem…" Vexus chuckled evilly as she tapped her fingers together lightly, "… someone to actually seal the deal."

*******************************

Drew groggily forms himself back up from a puddle, and onto his knees. The yellow new girl rushes over to his side to help him. They hear metal whining from behind them as they slowly turn to see a monstrous figure, on hind legs with sharp talons, and four arms folded out from his sides, like praying mantis claws, with a hunched over head, and yellow glowing eyes dangerously peering at the two from blazing fires from behind the figure.

**From StoneMan85**

Drew jumps, slithers at speed, and runs amazingly, avoiding all shots from going down a Cluster Ship hallway while dodging major shots, and healing from minor shots as well.

He and the red bot are running on a vast conveyer belt, dodging and avoiding both the Roach Drones, and the robotic equipment. Allison is doing the same, on a different conveyer belt.

The yellow fembot does a daring swan dive down a factory wall, with a screaming Tucker on her back. The blue bot reaches out, trying to grab someone.

**Inspired by CoyoteLoon's MLaaTR fanfics**

A dead robot attached to something, causing his eyes to blink like crazy.

The elder bot, the blue bot, and the hulking bot are running on the rooftops, avoiding a huge dragon-like bot looming over them, covered by the blind and brilliant radius of the sun.

The hulking bot stops as his face converts into a football shaped head guard, and out of his back pop out two handles of sorts. He looked up, as he reached for one of the handles, as the giant dragon towered at him, getting ready to dive right at him.

"Sometimes, fear…" the elder answered to Allison as he looked around pretty shook up, "… has the appropriate response."

A giant octopus-like robot shoots out from the roof, holding on Allison as it's fighting against Polaris, Drew, and the red robot, nearly falling over.

**When the Truth Got Out…**

The Resistance is fighting against AT Walker like robots, who fire a missile that unleashes a green gas that dissolves metal.

**Their Mission Began**

The Main Resistance Fighters are staring down at something, with Allison and Drew in the front.

The yellow fembot is trying to help the elder bot escape the Cluster. They were close to getting caught, until the Silver Shell popped up, and grabbed them, getting them out of the way.

Firefly Cluster Blimps shined above, looking for something… or someone.

The Resistance were running or fighting for cover on a distance planet.

A large cobra-like robot with spider legs jetting out of its sides towered over the elder and Allison.

Drew, jumping up being camouflaged by the sun, transforms his right forearm and hand into a machete blade, ready to take down the enemy.

The Cluster Resistance, with Sheldon and Tuck, fall down a shaft, screaming.

Suddenly, a huge explosion erupts from a starship in a crazy galactic battle.

_**DRU-1... Drew…**_

The Cluster Resistance looks over at the horizon, with Allison at the lead, with Drew walking up to meet her. When he's up there, her hand reaches for his, lightly holding it. He returns it as the two laced each others fingers together. As this happens, Drew's green chip pattern designs glow lightly.

(Fade to Black)

_**You… shall help protect the future…**_

**MLaaTR: Cluster Wars**


	2. Must be Something I Ate

**Disclaimer: I don't own My Life as a Teenage Robot; the characters, locations, and robots are the sole property of Nickelodeon and Rob Renzetti. The characters, Drew Nahboltz, Greaser, and LSN-1482/Allison are sole property of one CoyoteLoon; check out his stories, Android Scam, Escape from Paradise, and The Anywhere Cannon. OCs are of my own design.**

* * *

**MLaaTR: Cluster Wars**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Nano-Droid I-Spy; Something I Ate**

**Cluster Galaxy**

**Cluster Destroyer**

_**The Inferno**_

* * *

Gliding across the star-filled blackness of space, including the rocky asteroids that belted each other, and were crushed when _it_ passed through. A massive ship of insect design, to look like a demonic Dragonfly with its wings slightly opened, giving it the shape of an arrowhead. Its dark colors and red flashing lights that glowed in the night of space gave itself a menacing visage across the galaxy. As it flew around, Hornet Ships flew beside it, shooting at the asteroids that attempted to damage the ship, and then there were those that got destroyed by the bigger asteroids. The mighty Dragonfly vessel was known as the Inferno, a Super Cluster Battleship that was in control of only the most feared of the Cluster's Generals.

* * *

**Inside the Main Deck**

* * *

In the complexity and vastness of the ship, four foot robots that resembled cockroaches, called Roach-Drones, were busy manning the controls. However, most of the drones were gathered around their leader at this moment.

Their leader was a towering fellow, around seven feet tall, rather girthy, and had somewhat of a menacing quality to himself. His main body was colored Green while the rest of him was black and yellow. A Dark Green cape as stiff as insect wings were perched on his back, his forearms were green and large holding on to a pair of three sharp fingers and thumbs. This chest was like a vest, with yellow and black stripes going down his chest. His faceplate was yellow, and in his mouth, was a sort of snaggletooth to it as he smirked triumphantly, and on his head, was a black cowlick hairstyle that gave him another foot in height as it stuck out like a horn. This was Commander Smytus, one of the military leaders of the Cluster Empire… and a real egotistical nut job with more ego than he did menace.

"Excellent work… to myself, that is," Smytus smirked in triumph as he looked at a glass bobble of sorts. Inside were glowing aqua green crystals, pulsating with some sort of energy. "Pip Crystals. The rarest form of power in the Universe," the Cluster Commander smirked evilly at the glass casing, trailing his clawed appendages on the glassy surface, with much evil scheming on his snaggletoothed face, "Last time I had lost the only known batch of these wondrous minerals, all thanks to that miserable XJ-9, as well as her ridiculously dressed flesh counterparts. But after a little luck and effort, on one of Galvan's Moons, I found another batch."

He then placed the crystals down behind him as he secured them, "And with these crystals, I shall used their power to energize our newest Cluster Weapon, the_ Malevolence_. A device of such power and destruction, that not even XJ-9's advanced weaponry will be enough to destroy it. With it, we shall crush the Cluster Resistance in one swift stroke… as well as ensnare XJ-9 without even breaking a sweat. All with the push of a button." he then strode forward, ignoring the crystals for a moment as he plowed through his drones, "Soon, I shall regain my glory, as well as Queen Vexus's forgiveness from my previous failures." he then clenched his fists in determination, "Soon, I shall no longer be called Smyty-Bitey, Smuggy Buggy Smyty, or Smyte-Bit Bottom the Failure. Soon…." he then turned around as he threw his fists in the air, "I shall be Smytus, Destroyer of Worlds! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Um," one of the roach-drones nervously replied as his chassis shook with fear in upsetting the Commander. "Oh, Destroyer of Worlds…"

Smytus stopped, annoyed by this interruption; he turned around and furiously shouted to the drone, "What is it? Can't you see that I'm gloating in my triumph?"

"Well, you see… um… sir?"

"WELL WHAT?" Smytus shouted, his fists now glowing with pulsating green energy that crackled as he flexed his clawed fingers.

"It's the Pip Crystals," the drone shivered as he pointed to them.

"What about them?"

"They're gone," the drone answered finally. Smytus turned around, cocking an eyebrow as he looked back at the control console… and saw the Pip Crystals were gone.

Smytus's optical sensors grew wide with shock as he shouted, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"

* * *

**Elsewhere**

* * *

Down the hallways of the ship, a green and yellow roach-drone bolted down the hallway. He was carrying over his shoulder a brown potato bag of sorts, making sure not to lose his grip on it. He was running down the busy hallway, colliding through the other drones, pushing through or knocking some over. The drone shouted as he pushed through the drone crowds, "Excuse me - coming through - imperative work drone coming through - clear a path, people!" he was rushing feverishly until he skidded to a halt to one of the elevator doors. He immediately pushed a button, and the door opened, as he raced on in, closing the doors before any of the other drones went in.

As the elevator doors closed, the elevator's computers asked, "Area of Designation?"

"Escape Pod Bay," the Drone answered, "And make it snappy."

"Understood. Have a nice day aboard the _Inferno_," the computer responded, and the elevator started moving.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to tell all my friends about it. That way, they'll know where to go for a summer vacation." The drone sighed as he brought the bag off his shoulder. He opened the bag to examine his cargo; it was none other than the stolen Pip crystals. While Smytus had been going on with his stupid gloating, the drone had taken this opportunity to steal them from under Snaggletooth's nose. Looking around, the left side of his antenna schlorpped a bit, until it had transformed into a radio microphone and receiver as he spoke into it, "Call-Girl, come in, Call-Girl. This is Clayface speaking. I repeat, this is Clayface."

"Copy over, Clayface," a voice transmitted over the comm… a very attractive teenaged girl's voice. "By the way…" the voice questioned, "… Clayface? Call Girl? Who came up with that?"

The drone sighed in exasperation, "You can thank Tuck for that one, Ally. He felt having code names was part of the whole 'spy gig'."

The girl bot on the comm, now known as Ally, giggled at that, "Well, he did want to help, Drew." but then her voice toned to a more leadership-like tone, "Anyway, what's the situation? Did you find anything about the Cluster's newest weapon?"

"Only in that it's called the _Malevolence._ a pretty cheerful name, if I might add," the drone named Drew answered. "And that it's supposedly powered by Pip Crystals." he then hefted the bag on his shoulder in triumph, "Which, I happen to have on me right…"

"ELEVATOR APPROACHING AIRLOCK," the computer announced.

Drew turned to the computer as he asked, "Airlock? No, I told you to go to the Escape Pod Bay."

"UNABLE TO COMPLY. COMPUTER IN LOCKDOWN MODE. NO OTHER COMMUNICATIONS/COMMANDS CAN BE VERIFIED. THANK YOU… AND HAVE A NICE DAY."

Drew sighed as his insect shoulders slumped in defeat, "Great. They caught on to me," he then switched to his comm as he had to make this short. "Sorry, Ally. Gotta go; seems ol' Snaggletooth's found me out. I gotta go; meet you back at HQ."

"Drew, wait…" but was cut off quickly as Drew holstered the bag over his shoulder. He looked at the door, awaiting whatever was gonna surprise him out of his gears.

* * *

**Airlock Bay**

* * *

It was a little while of a wait for Drew, but the drone turned his attention to the door as the elevator finally stopped. The doors clicked and whirred for a moment, adding to the drone's nervousness. Then finally, the doors opened as light shined in through the door, allowing Drew to once again see where he was. However… it wasn't all that good to look at.

Awaiting for him in the airlock bay, roach drones were pointing laser rifles at point-blank range right at him. Along with the drones were giant armored Beetle Drones, pointing two blasters at him, along with shoulder mounted laser cannons on their shoulder, red laser points aiming right at him. And to top it all off even more, giant beetle tanks were also aiming their massive cannon noses at the drone. The renegade roach drone paled as he saw before him, nearly half the ship's armed forces all surrounding him, aiming all their laser guiders at his head.

"Oh, slag," Drew muttered.

Pushing through the drones, Smytus was looking rather peeved as he was now six inches from the roach drone. He snarled, looking down at the thieving drone. His eyebrows cocked angrily as he looked to see the brown bag containing his beloved crystals.

He then glared darkly down at the rogue drone as he demanded an explanation, "And just where did you think you were doing with my Pip Crystals, you traitorous drone?"

The renegade drone gulped, as he nervously answered, getting a good look at Smytus's glowing claws, "I was, well… I heard about what had happened when you had Pip Crystals the last time." in truth, Drew had learned about that little episode when Jenny explained to him why Brit and Tiff were wearing brown sack clothing. "So, I thought… I would… lock them in the vault," the drone answered. "The reason why I didn't tell you this was because you were having such a good time gloating. I didn't want to interrupt you, oh, Great Destroyer of Worlds."

Smytus's mood finally cooled down a bit, buying the lie, hook, line, and sinker. "Oh, well if that's the case, then go on ahead, worthless drone." and stepped aside, "Ensure that my crystals are well locked up."

"I will, my lord," the drone answered as he walked away with the crystals in tow. He then looked away as he mumbled, "What a mook." and as he walked out, almost home free, several drones stepped in front of him, pointing all their weapons at him, ready to blow his head off.

"There _is_ no safe on this ship," Smytus growled as he walked towards the drone once again. "Do you honestly think I would let a mere drone walk away with my crystals without an enforced escort to ensure they weren't stolen?" he then stopped as he brought up his balled fists, the light green energy glowing brightly and dangerously, "Just who are you? What's your designation number, drone?"

The drone gulped as he chuckled nervously, "Oh, well… my number is, um…. 1, 2, 3, 4.… and uh…. 5."

"12345?" Smytus asked, cocking his eyebrow, and sneering wildly at the drone, coming face-to-face at him. "That's the dumbest designation I've ever heard in my existence!"

"Yeah," the drone shrugged as he looked to the Cluster Commander, "That is the kind of thing an idiot, like you, would put as the combination on his luggage."

Smytus snarled at this drone, his anger reaching the breaking point, "Why you little, disrespectful…!" and then slashed at the drone, causing the roach drone to get thrown back and sprawling on the floor. The Commander flexed his claws as he walked away, "Get the Pip Crystals from the corpse, and jettison the corpse out in space."

The drones nodded at that as they walked towards the dead drone. However, if they looked carefully, they would have noticed the robot's body slightly shimmering a bit for only a moment. But one of the drones, who were listening to console control, reported to Smytus, "Commander! We've lost transmissions, and most of the elevators have all been deactivated."

Smytus looked at the drone puzzled, "Could it be the drone…?"

"Negative," the other roach drone answered, "It came from an unknown outside source. When we tried to trace it, for some odd reason it evaded all of our attempts to track it. It was almost as if it had a mind of its own."

Suddenly, the downed roach drone leapt back up, startling the other drones including Smytus, as he suddenly began stretching into an impossibly flexible loop, including doubling the size of his fists. He plowed it into the dumbstruck face of another roach, but that was the only free shot he got. Alerted to the treacherous roach drone's stunning revival, the Cluster drones snapped into combat mode, and came at the "rogue drone" with a cyclone of wild roundhouse punches – yet none of them landed a single blow, as the drone's roach body contorted itself into half a dozen surreal shapes. Frustrated, they deployed their taser weapons and circled him, powering up for a crippling attack …

And _that_ was when his whole body slurped into a silver green puddle. A shimmer of silver-green flashed across his body, reverting his face, as he took on a more humanoid shape.

It had transformed in the appearance of a humanoid teenage boy, who looked of the appearance of a sixteen year old. The body was slim but physically fit; resembling a teenager that played baseball and was pretty good for speed. Its body was a mixed color of Light and Dark Grays, and still had its pulsing green zigzag designs on its body. His moppy hair with three bangs in its face, neck and neck collar, flat stomach, knees, elbows, heels, toe tips, and fingers and thumbs were all colored Dark Gray. While its face, chest, pelvis, arms, and legs were all colored Light Gray, but all the grays were separated by the green zigzag patterns that seemed to resemble the design of a computer chip. But the design of the body seem to show that it also morphed itself a hoodie jacket, with the hoodie down and zipped up halfway to expose the collar bone. The sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and a pair of jeans with the legs rolled up and ending under the knees, and a belt that connected the two articles of clothing that blended in to the body amazingly. It then opened its eyes, with briefly glowed a dim light green, and then died down a bit, revealing a pair of black eyes.

The figure turned out to be none other than Andrew 'Drew' Nabholtz, otherwise known to the Cluster as the following: DRU-1, the Nanobot Droid, or what Vexus called the Abomination of her people and all Robots. In truth, Drew was once a human, but a surprising turn of events at Tremorton High caused him to become a robot composed of bazillions of nanobots that came from the Cluster, designed by the crazed genius known as Stanley. After realization of his newfound shape shifting powers, from which was made possible by the nanobots and his liquid-like form, Drew had been tossed into a second chance or a new life, so to speak. A new life given his previous after the accident he had sustained as a human from losing his right leg. Trained by Jenny as a sort of partner/sidekick for her, the two had faced off against the Cluster, escaped Cluster Prime and stopped the invasion that Vexus dared to attempt: Cluster Dawn. During the beginning, middle and after the end of it all, Drew had met LSN-1482, Allison, a beautiful and smart fem bot, in which became the leader of the Cluster Resistance, and in which Drew became their Spy, secret of course from Jenny to ensure that if captured, would not reveal their secrets to the Cluster Empire.

And for him, this was just one of those missions.

Drew sighed as he looked around, seeing roach-drones charged at him. "Oh great, nearly fifty against one. What's a poor sophomore to do?" the Nano-droid smirked and morphed his forearms into mono-molecular blades. Three quick slash-attacks sent severed robot arms scattering across the floor, leaving stumps that gushed with messy streams of jet-black oil. He then struck a ninja-like pose as he smirked, "Oh yeah, hit'em with everything he's got."

"The _nanodroid!_" bellowed Smytus, near-incandescent with rage. "I despise you, abomination! You're always helping those Resistance fools with their lost cause of freeing the Cluster from my Queen!" He then looked to his troops and ordered out, "Close the security door! All troops, switch to paralyzer rays and fire at will!"

"Oh…. Shazbutt," Drew mumbled as he ducked, dodged, dipped, dived, and dodged again from a barrage of laser blasts. The drones then charged right at him, dog piling on him finally. However, that proved to be a fatal error, as a porcupine bouquet of spikes shot out through them, and then transformed into flexible tentacles, pulling them off of Drew as the silver-green nano-droid threw them in different directions, knocking over as many drones as he could. However, it wasn't letting up, as more drones came over surrounding Drew at this point.

Smytus pushed through the crowd, as he and the nano-abomination were face-to-face. The evil Cluster Commander maniacally laughed with delight at cornering the nano-droid, "Foolish abomination! Did you really think you could outwit Smytus, Lord of the Outer Rims of the Calim Galaxy, Mayor of Moonrobia… and DESTROYER OF WORLDS?"

Drew crouched down to pick up the sack of Pip Crystals as he stood up, and crossed his arms in mocking thought. He then shrugged at the Cluster Commander as he answered truthfully, "Well, if it were you, oh Destroyer of Worlds… I'd have to say…" and smirked as he nodded, "… yep, I really think I could outwit a guy who hasn't gone to see the dentist about that snaggletooth in your mouth."

Smytus sneered as a wire vein popped on his forehead in the nanodroid's arrogance. However, a couple of snickers were heard from behind him as he turned to his drones, who all silenced and whistled innocently. Finally, Smytus turned back to the Nanodroid as he roared, "Just give me the Pip Crystals!"

The nanodroid looked around, knowing full well he couldn't fight all the drones. All the escape ways were blocked as he looked around, but then felt a small bit of light from above him as he trailed his eyes upward, and saw a glass dome leading to the outside of outer space, and no roach-drones climbing up the walls even bothering to guard it. Drew thought about it for a moment, and decided against his better judgment on this, 'Okay… I'm not gonna like doing this at all. But it's all I got at this point.' he took the bag and opened it, pulled out the Pip Crystals… and then stretched out his mouth, swallowing the crystals whole in a matter of five seconds. With one gulp, Drew looked to the Commander as he winked and smirked, "You're gonna have to play Operation to get these outta me, if you want them back."

The drones, even Smytus, were a bit stunned by this; the nanodroid had swallowed the Pip Crystals. By swallowing such a rare and unpredictable power in the center of its being, who knew what would happen to the droid at this time. However, Smytus sneered even more as he growled, but then smirked triumphantly as he pointed out the obviousness, "Heheheheheh, indestructible or not. Even you must realize, abomination… you… are… doomed!"

As the Commander chuckled at this, Drew's right hand had slowly morphed into a sharp and heavy harpoon point. "Oh, I don think so," Drew replied with a scheming smirk spreading across his gray face.

His arm then twisted around into a circle, gaining a sort of momentum, and with that, he spun it around as fast as he could, like letting go of a rubber band that had been stretched to its limit and released finally. The spear sped at lightning speed, making contact with the glass dome, sticking right through the glass. A few seconds past, with the drones and Smytus sighing with relief at the dome not shattering, but finally, the dome _did_ shatter.

The air began to be sucked out of the dome, with drones flying out screaming at the top of their cyber voice processors. Drew smirked at this as he saw the drones and Smytus too busy to even notice him now. He immediately slurped and curled up into a shiny silver/green ball, using both his momentum and the air vacuum to shoot himself out of the ship, being shot out of the ship like a cannon ball. Immediately the emergency doors began to shut as fast as they could. However, before they did, Smytus took careful aim at the silver ball that was the nanodroid with his plasma fist.

ZAP!

The Cluster Commander had successfully taken a shot at the sphere, and made a direct hit. The ball, even though could repair himself pretty well, was scorched, and part of it was missing exposing the Pip Crystals. Immediately, Drew's nano-goo body began to reform around it, and out of the ball shot out a thin wire rope that shot right at the outside of the ship as the blast doors closed. The tip of the rope opened up into a four-clawed grapple hook, piercing into the metal and staying in place as the claws clamped on tightly.

The sphere then schlorpped back into Drew as he pulled himself back to the ship, reeling in like a fishing pole would. He then morphed his feet into a pair of clawed ape feet, and clamped onto the ship's outer surface. After making sure that he wasn't floating off into the vast and dark abyss that was outer space, the rogue nano-droid lumbered towards where he knew the Escape Pod bay would be. However, as he lumbered on over, his nanobot-composed body began to repair the damage that Smytus had inflicted upon him; the wounds had begun to rebuild and clean the damaged metal that was shot at. What he didn't see, was that the nanobots began to encircle and nearly consume completely the Pip Crystals whole.

* * *

**Escape Pod Bay**

* * *

The roof bay door opened, letting out a little air, as Drew jumped down in a clumsy crouched position. The door suddenly closed up as the wind hissed tight. Drew stood up as he stretched out a bit, attempting to take out any fake kinks he might've sustained.

He looked around and sighed with relief, seeing the area was completely empty, "Well, this is new… and a huge relief. Nobody's here to try and stop me." the nanodroid walked to the closest pod door, and with a schlerp, his right hand fingers stretched to the controls and oozed in there. The green patterns on his right forearm and hand glowed as his Nanomachines began to do their thing: hack into computers to make and do what he want them to do.

"Personally, I kind of enjoy the quiet," Drew told himself with a half-smirk. Finally, the door clicked in a pleasant tone as the doors hissed and opened slowly. Drew sighed, despite the fact that he couldn't breathe at all, "Well, at least on this mission, I didn't have to worry about…" but as the doors opened, the nanodroid teen's eyes went wide with surprise as his jaw dropped in shocked suprrise.

"Hey, Drew. 'bout time ya got here," a young voice was heard from within from the pod.

Drew's attitude went from cheerful and relaxed to one of annoyance as he looked down at who was waiting in the pod. "Oh, Hi there, Tin Can," he mumbled under his breath. Standing in front of him about fifteen inches from him… and nearly two to three feet in height, was a tin can robot of sorts, with black arms and legs, tin hands and tin cup feet.

His grilled features smirked at the nanodroid as he struck a pose as he spoke in a heroic tone, "Say it with vigor, Agent Clayface, like you mean it! For I, the Tin Can, have risked all and sacrificed much to be with…"

"First of all, Tuck, you didn't sacrifice anything. You snuck with me… again!" Drew walked into the pod as he pushed a button, closing the door behind him. "And second of all…" he groaned as he grabbed the Tin Can by the head, "Get out of that suit. You look ridiculous, and the Cluster Drones aren't here."

The Tin Can sighed as his whole being opened like a suitcase would… and out popped a small human boy. He appeared to be around the age of seven or ten, short for his age… very short. Messy but neat black hair adorned his head, a mischievous but innocent grin on his face, and his attire was a simple combination of a red shirt, blue pants, and black shoes.

Tuck pouted, "You get to go around in cool disguises."

"That's because I'm a shape shifter," Drew pointed out as he sat down at the controls, typing in the coordinates. "The only reason you're wearing the suit Sheldon made you is because you somehow bribed the poor guy."

"Ah! Drew, how could you?" Tucker pointed out as the pod launched itself from the ship, sending them who knows where as Tuck continued, "Me? Bribery? Why Drew… you've mistaken my noble intentions. T'was Sheldon who insisted that he build me the suit."

In truth, Tucker had found out about Sheldon's double identity as the flaky superhero, the Silver Shell, to whom Drew also had found out about. It was when Tuck had 'unintentionally' bribed him into saying he would tell Brad and Jenny about it. It was then that the love-struck nerd had made his own bribe: Tuck would keep quiet about it and he would build him a power tech suit much like his own. However, it didn't really have superpowers; like Tuck once said, it was small, humid, and itched in strange places whenever he had it on.

"Besides," Tuck pointed to the suit as his ever-noble smirk appeared on his face, "Now that the Tin Can is repaired, I can go on more missions with you." the little boy flashed the nanodroid a smile, whose eye was twitching nervously, "Isnt that great? I can help out more than ever… " But Tuck stopped as he looked at Drew's form, hulking over and picking up the Tin Can suit, "Drew what are you doing?"

"Eating the Tin Can. I'm hungry." as he held it, his fingers began to stretch and schlerp as it was about to devour the suit.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" the little boy shouted as Tuck jumped at Drew, tackling him in the face. "You can't devour it! I can't bribe Sheldon to make me another one!" Tuck shouted/pleaded with Drew as he clamped onto the nanodroid's face like a koala.

The two were bouncing off and on the inside of the pod as it drifted through the vastness of space. Its rockets immediately shot on, going to who knows where it was taking them to. And while Drew tried to pry off the little brother of one of his friends, his nanobots were finishing the last of the Pip Crystals that he had devoured… by accident.

* * *

**Elsewhere**

**Secret Location**

* * *

In a dark and garbage filled tunnel, the sound of three squeaky wheels were heard as they bumped on the steel and dirt covered surface of the ground. For a moment, the area was darkened a bit, until light brightened up the area a bit. The new guy's lamp attachment on his head flickered for a second, then settled down to throw shaky, exaggerated shadows on the rust-flecked walls of the service tunnel, bathing on the tossed technology that the figure began to scower through like a pack rat would.

He was a robot of 41/2 feet in height, humanoid on the upper torso part, but vehicle in lower torso. His lower half looked to be the front and back of an old-fashioned beetle car; the head lights in front, and the trunk in the back, with two wheels in front and only one in the rear. His torso was human shaped; his waist was a thin bendable jointed stock, his thin chest connected to two white multi-jointed arms with orange shower head hands with three fingers on his hands, and a horizontal air tank structure on his back. His head was shaped like a motor boat engine, but with a light fixture on his head, with his eyes on the sides of his head instead of the front, and his box nutcracker mouth, smirking as he scrimmaged through the tech junk to find some good parts. He was colored rust orange all over, except for his bottom half, which was only colored on the wheel guards, waist line, and trunk door. This was Greaser, or formerly known as GRR-0781, a mechanic bot; another teenage robot. He was enthusiastic, but somewhat lacking in battle experience; he was more of a stay on base repairman.

He was currently looking at the remains of a down Black Mantis drone, looking for anything useable. He sighed as his shoulders slumped a bit, "Man, they never have any good parts," he told himself as he examined an optical unit, and tossed it aside. "Those Cluster dudes could at least throw in some good ol'… "

Suddenly, a port opened up from above him, startling him as he jumped back, making a woman's scream with his audio processor. Landing in a clumsy cat crouch, was Drew as he stood up, giving Greaser much relief. He turned to look as he smirked, seeing a friendly freedom fighter face, "Hey, Greaser. How goes the junk hunt?"

"Hey, Nano-dude!" Greaser responded in a fan boy tone. He then casually smirked as he rummaged through the remains of a few downed Ubber Roach Drones, "Nothin' yet. But like my uncle Mater once told me, 'Y'all look hard in junk, you'll find it's full o' riches."

"So how long until you find gold?"

Greaser rummaged through one drone's remains, until he found something in the chest. He smirked as he pulled it out; a voice box as he turned around and showed a confused Drew, "So far, so good, Nano-dude."

"Um, great," Drew gave out a half-smirk at the situation, "But you can call me Drew. Nano-dude sounds like something Tuck would come up with."

"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" suddenly, falling down the still-open hatch, Tuck was caught in Drew's hand, which had morphed into an oversized baseball glove… and he was wearing a half-eaten Tin Can outfit. As soon as

Tuck's nausea left him, he turned and smirked at Greaser, waving his half-eaten robotic hand, "Hey, Greaseman. How's it rollin'?"

"Hey, Tuck!" Greaser gleefully welcomed the only human that had 'unofficially joined' the Cluster Resistance. But he looked slightly confused as he pointed out, "Um… what's with the half-eaten disguise?"

"Oh, you can thank Drew for that," Tuck venomously shot at his nanodroid partner on that one.

* * *

**Apartment Complex**

**Room 384**

* * *

In an apartment room constructed from either discarded or stolen Cluster furniture, someone worked feverishly at an assembled computer console. The console was composed of different monitors that nearly took up the corner of the room as the robot worked hard on what appeared to be battle plans for whatever reasons they were for.

She was a female robot with the appearance of a humanoid teenage girl, who looked of the appearance of a fifteen year old girl. She was tall, with her figure completely graceful and slender, with a tapered face and an attractive, streamline chassis. Her long foil mute purple hair reached down to her lower back and ended there, and on her head, it was combed to the right and folded on the left side to where her bangs parted, a small little antenna dish was there, acting as a sort of flower. Her main body was colored pale white, but her secondary color was colored muted purple like her hair was. Her chest from the waist was designed into a purple blouse with the collar loose, and buttoned down a bit, exposing her robotic cleavage a bit, but not too much. Her shoulders were exposed, but starting from under her elbows and ending at her slender hands were purple sleeve coverings, and ending at her wrists were bell shaped sleeve cuffs. On her waist, a black belt was built into her waist, going down her legs was a mini skirt, that stretched down to her right leg ankle joint. Her knees were white circles, while her calves down to her ankles were thin but a little enlarged and muted violet, with her ankles being white circles, and her dainty feet were solid pale white with no toes at all.

This was LSN-1482, or AKA Allison, teenaged robot girl, Link Systems Network robot, and the Intel and Link Communications expert and leader of the Cluster Resistance. But more importantly… she was the girlfriend of…

KNOCK! KNOCK!

She turned around while still sitting down as she looked to the door. 'Who's at the door?' and stood up as she walked towards the door, but stopped for a moment. She looked to her coffee table, where a Cluster laser pistol was placed. Thinking it could be the worst, she grabbed it, deactivated the safety and held it in her hand defensively. She slowly reached the doorknob… until it opened up, causing her to point her blaster at the assailant.

However, standing at the door, holding his hands up in defense of himself, Drew sheepishly grinned. "Um… Special delivery?" quipped Drew.

Groaning and letting her gun down, Allison sighed as she holstered her gun as she looked at him. "You… are very late, Drew," she scolded as she put her pistol down and walked outside to stand with Drew.

As they were outside, a better view was shown to show that they weren't on the surface of Cluster Prime… they were beneath it. And beneath the grand technological world that was Cluster Prime, 50 miles below the surface, was an ancient city of the old Cluster Prime. Where above this place was the vast city of Robotropolis, beneath where they were was the ancient city of Iacon. This was just the latest example of an eons-old trend of vertical expansion. In fleeing from the iron clutches of the Cluster Empire as well as Vexus, those who accepted the truth about Vexus' evil ways and had escaped in the sewars, found many layers of abandoned civilization, all the way down fifty miles below the surface. The City of Iacon was once an advanced metropolis in Cluster Prime's 7th Age… now it was a city, being rebuilt as best it could using stolen Cluster tech. buildings were being refitted with their state of the art tech, broken construction machines were now being used as small huts, and the building that Drew and Allison were standing in was just merely one of the bases of operations, but mainly used for housing at this point.

After the viewing, Allison turned to Drew as she plunked her fists on her hips, giving her boyfriend an annoyed clank. Tapping her foot as she grabbed his attention, "So what'd you do that kept you?"

An embarrassed smirk flashed on his face as he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, sorry about that," he gestured as the two walked into her newly acquired apartment. "It was a little bit of a rough ride… what with Tuck backseat driving."

As the doors closed, Allison's annoyance disappeared, and a small giggle escaped her voice processor. "Tuck was driving?" she shook her head as she walked in and closed the door behind her. "I heard that Brad's driving was bad," she then got a glance of disbelief from Drew as she confessed, "Okay, it was really bad. Considering I experienced it first hand back on Earth." but then she asked, "So, aside from where Tuck is right now, where the Pip Crystals?"

"Well, Tuck's hanging around Greaser, hoping to get his Tin Can outfit fixed," Drew answered, and then sighed deeply, knowing full well the she wouldn't like the next part, "And as for the Pip Crystals…" He paled a bit as he tried to think of a way to explain. "Well, they're in the process of… eh, well… circumstances being what they were when Smytus spotted us…" he stopped as he saw Allison cross her arms and getting a little annoyed with him stalling, and sighed as he confessed. "I ate them by accident."

As soon as he uttered those last words, she rushed to him with fear and concern in her eyes, and grabbed his arms, as if she were afraid he might collapse at any moment. "Drew! Omigosh, Drew! Are you all right?"

He was a bit surprised to see her act like this; she knew that he could handle punishment, but this seemed a bit extreme in the levels of fear. Drew placed a silvery hand on her shoulder with a weak chuckle. "I'm fine, Ally … really, don't worry. I'm built to take abuse. I doubt a few mystery powered crystals are gonna do me in."

She led him over to the couch as they sat down, but she was still worried. "Are you sure?" she asked, her fear not leaving her face nor her voice, "Drew, you shouldn't have done that. The Pip Crystal's properties are completely unpredictable." she leaned in to his face with her pleading voice, "I mean, I know you're indestructible, Drew, but I'm not even sure if your nanobots can withstand that much energy." she then placed her hand on his forehead, checking if his outer metal was overloading with heat, "You sure you're feeling well?"

"Ally," Drew calmed her down as he took the hand off his forehead, but still held onto it. "I have never felt better in my life."

But suddenly, to his surprise, she looked like she didn't know whether to be worried or furious at him. "Didn't I tell you not to ever do something that stupid again?" she shouted, taking her hand from his shoulder and pounding it into his chest, clenching her eyes shut as she did so. "And then you go off doing this reckless! Who knows what'll happen! sponge head! Jerk! DUMMY!"

"Ally, calm down! I'm telling you, I feel great," Drew defended, distressed in seeing her act like this. "If I were dying or something, believe me, I'd know!"

But before he could come back with another excuse or his usual wisecrack, she crashed into his chest. She flung her arms around him, and buried her face in his chest. To his astonishment, she only cried for a few seconds as she spoke, her voice muffled in his chest, sounding like her voice was shaking as a whisper. "I know you always do crazy things to ensure the mission goes well… but…" she then pulled away for a moment to look at Drew, face to face, and dried away her tears. "… I just wish you wouldn't do anything _too_ risky."

A crooked smile wrenched its way onto his face, as he realized that this was _more_ than just concern for his safety. A fantastic warmth coursed through his circuits as he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist, and squeezed her tight. "Well, this comes with the job, Ally." He then pulled back a bit as he cupped her chin, "You know how it goes: Sneak in, sneak out, come out of it with a few scratches and such, and try not to kill your annoying little partner for being a pest."

"Riiight," Ally chuckled as she sniffled a bit, drying away her tears. She always knew what the missions were like, and she also knew that you had to do crazy things when unexpected glitches pop up in them. Allison slid herself against his silvery chest, and nuzzled her smooth metal cheek against his neck as she snuggled with him on the sponge couch. As if to reassure herself that he was physically there, and still in one piece. Her eyes flitted up to meet his. "Thanks for not getting yourself blasted… again," she said. "And thanks for stopping the Pip Crystal shipment. Even if you had to digest them in the process."

"Hey, like I said, it was a last minute thing. You can thank Smytus for giving me the excuse of eating them for self-repair reasons." He wrapped a silver-green arm around her shoulders, and gave her a firm squeeze. "But I gotta admit. They did taste pretty weird; kind of like… rancid boiled broccoli weird."

"Stop it, jerk," she laughed, returning the embrace. When you were a fugitive from Cluster Imperial 'justice', or rather the Queen's version of Justice, moments like this had to be cherished, savored … and stored away on optical disk. "You know, after we take care of this _Malevolence_ situation, we'll have to try something wild and crazy, like … dinner and a movie. Or at least something with Jenny and the others back on Earth."

"No, really, it's okay … all the couples back on Earth hang out in dark, rusty and condemned cities. Like back with the pipes." Allison looked up to give Drew a playful credulous smirk as he defended. "No, seriously. You have to make a reservations in advance just to get one of the good ones."

She leaned forward, and a wicked, seductive smile spread across the ghostly outline of her face. A slim finger started to slowly trace one of the green stripes on his chest. "So remind me again…" Allison whispered, her voice getting lower and lower every time she inched closer to his face. "Just what do human teenagers _do_, when they get together … in a dark … isolated … lonely place?"

He grinned, and brushed a strand of lavender hair-foil out of her eyes. "Well, it's pretty simple… they just … use their imagination." he smirked, sliding an arm around her back. He could feel her turbines pounding with excitement, spinning faster and faster. And he could stare into those eyes all day. Sure, it might be one of the more … _unconventional_ romantic arrangements that anyone could possibly imagine, but Ally was so totally worth it.

He closed his eyes, dropped his lips to hers, and …

"Drew, hurry up!" Tuck shouted as he stormed in the room. "It's been close to six hours now!" The two robot teens foreheads clanked together, caused by Tuck's arrival and outburst. Tuck drew an eyebrow upward as he cluelessly asked, "Um… was this a bad time?"

"Wha? Aw, crap." He flowed the back of his left hand into a video panel, which displayed the time …

"Oh, crap. Ohhhh, crap crap megacrap! It has been six hours!" He scrambled to his feet, and helped Allison to hers, while she massaged the fresh dent just above her forehead. Drew was a seething cauldron of frustration. "Ally, I'm so sorry, but … Schikey! it's already been too long since we had to ditch Brad and Jenny back in the mall! It's almost time for the movie to start soon!"

"I think it was way past that time, Drew," Tuck answered as he pulled out the Cluster Teleporter control. "I'm pretty sure my brother and Jenny're still waitin' at the Food Court."

As soon as Drew turned around to face her, he apologized as he always did. "Ally, I'm really sorry about all this. I just wish…"

"Don't worry about it," she sighed. She knew she wasn't the only one with unusual circumstances in this relationship. "It's just the way things have to be, for a while." She gave him a peck on the cheek. "But incidentally…" she asked the two as she cocked an eyebrow, "What exactly do Jenny and Brad think you've guys been doing for the past six hours?"

* * *

**Earth**

**Tremorton Mall**

**Men's Room**

* * *

A couple of high school students casually walked into the men's room, either debating on events for their weekend, or just simply discussing on the relative babeness of the girls who were hanging out at Tremorton Mall. All seemed to go pretty normal for them…

And all of a sudden they were knocked on their backs by a mysterious, chitterling flash of light that blew up with the brilliance of a single kaleidoscope of color, and whipped up a small tornado of toilet paper and magazine pages. The mall-goers dove for cover near the stalls or behind the sinks, probably from shock of the sudden appearance of a hyperspace portal blooming into being where the middle stall was.

Outside the stall, and in the food court, waiting outside of Wonder Weinie, two teens were sitting down patiently. One was an average teenaged Caucasian boy of sixteen years of age, slim but not much of an athlete, with red spikey hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a white long sleeve dress shirt, not tucked in, and a black sweater vest, and khaki jeans with black sneakers. This was Bradley 'Brad' Carbunkle, big brother to one Tucker Carbunkle; self-proclaimed teenage girl heartthrob, self-proclaimed ambassador to teenage robots to introduce them into the world of human teenager-hood, and the first human friend of Jennifer 'Jenny' Wakeman, AKA the Global Response Robotic Unit XJ-9.

The other teenager sitting at the table was a very cute… teenage robot. She was six feet tall, 6 ½ counting her triangular pigtails. Her primary skin color was pale white, but her secondary color was that of a pale blue. Her design was that of a blue tank top and blue mini skirt, with blue boot-like constructs on her lower legs, but her feet remained white and dainty, as one of them clanked on the floor impatiently, and she alos had a blue bolt in her center of her stomach to act as her bellybutton. Her blue pigtails were kept in place to two white flathead screws, and her hair was brushed to the right, looking a little tussled. The robot girl placed her right hand on her cheek and leaned on the table, balancing her weight on her elbow, while her left hand tapped her fingers on the table impatiently. This was the Global Response Unit XJ-9, but to her friends, was called Jennifer Wakeman, or Jenny for short.

Brad sighed as he leaned back in his chair, looking up at the glass ceiling as he asked, "How long have those two been in the Men's Room?"

Jenny sighed as she brought her left wrist up to her optic units. Her wrist cracked open as a small cylinderal device that popped up as her wrist popped back in place. Then the glass surface of the device lit up, showing it to be a digital wrist watch, one of her many gadgets, as she deduced the time. "It's been six hours, twenty-five minutes, and seventeen seconds, since those two left for the bathroom," Jenny sighed in boredom. She sat right back up as she grumbled, "I know that Tuck had to go to the restroom, and that he insisted that he go with Drew," and then she sat up in her chair, waving her arms around as she nearly screamed, "But to take this long… BUT THIS IS JUST FREAKIN' CRAZY!"

"I know," Brad added as he too sat up. "Usually it takes Tuck to go to the restroom for nearly three hours. But six? Man, that's gotta be a new one for the little…"

"MY BUSINESS… IS DONE!" the two teens turned around and saw Tuck hold out his arms, as if expecting to catch something out of the air. Drew was standing right behind him, his arms crossed and shaking his head with him cocking his eyebrow. The two strode over, as if nothing happened, and Tuck jumped onto the closets empty chair there was. He brought his hands behind him as he asked casually, "So… miss us?"

Jenny clamped her fists on her hips as she interrogated, "Tuck! Drew! Where the heck have you two been?" she pointed to the watch that was still out as she made her point. "You guys were gone for six full hours! We thought Tuck might've flushed himself down the toilet… again!"

"Well, it took a little longer than we thought," Drew answered, shrugging and looking as innocent as he could. "This kid's digestive system is a walking hazard when he eats almost thirty nachos in under thirty minutes."

"Fifteen minutes," Tuck corrected, looking smug. "And that's a new Carbunkle record."

"Yeah," Brad corrected. "But still, Tuck. Six hours? There was no way you spent all that time in the restroom."

Sensing that they were not believing this, Tuck threw on one of his performances. "Nonsense!" He jumped onto the table as he exclaimed dramatically, "I had much to do!" he then jumped at Jenny as he exclaimed, "SO MUCH!"

"Ooookay," Jenny nervously shrugged, but then looked to drew. "So why did you need to use the toilet, Drew? You don't even have a digestive system or a bladder."

"Oh, well," Drew stammered as he thought about it, trying to think of a good excuse. He then rubbed his hands together nervously; it was when he did that, his brain lit up an idea, "I had to go… wash my hands."

"But, Drew," Jenny pointed out. "You don't have to wash your hands. Your nanobots take care of that problem."

"It's a force of habit, Jen," Drew answered quickly, hoping to just skip the interrogation. "So… are we gonna see District 10, or what?"

Brad sat up as he stretched out as he thumbs up, "A'right. Let's get goin'. we've waited long enough." and he and Tuck strode towards the theater in the mall.

Jenny just shrugged as she and Drew strode on with them. 'Whew. Glad that's over with; don't know what I'd do if I couldn't come up with an excuse,' Drew thought as he schlorpped his hands into his front, making the hoodie jacket he formed into his robot wardrobe have an oversized front pocket. Suddenly, he stopped as he hunched over, holding his stomach in pain, "UGH! Oooooh boy!"

Deep within him, over 1,000,000x of microscopic measurement of a microscope lens, Drew's nanobots were acting pretty erratic. The tick shaped Nanomachines were firing up like crazy, shaking up like maracas in a mariachi band. And as they did, they crackled with tiny electrical lime green thunderbolts that danced and connected to one another, causing some sort of bizarre disturbance in the young nanodroid teen's body and systems.

As the trio were about to head to the theater, they heard Drew's groaning and stopped in their tracks. Jenny was the first to notice the green chip patterns on his body blinking like crazy, almost as if they were giving some indication of damage that her friend wasn't aware of. "Drew?" Jenny stopped as she walked back to him seeing him in such misery, touching his shoulder, "Are you okay?"

The nanodroid boy slowly rose up, and then went wide eye as his stomach… if he had one… gurgle and churn as he groaned out, "No…" and bolted immediately to the next trashcan. He swat the lid off, grabbed the sides, and ducked his head in there… and vomited beyond disgusting, "BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"

"Whoa, Drew," Brad strode over with Tuck as he asked, "You sure you're okay?"

"Just fine, just fine," he answered as he weakly got his head up, groaning. "I think… I think I'm…" but then his eyes went wide again as he grabbed the sides, and dunked his head in again, "BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"

"Wow, that was longer than the last one." Tuck quipped. "Ah man, that's gotta break my record when I ate that whole bucket of butter."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Upgrade Pains; Old Dog, New Tricks**


	3. Upgrade Pains pt1

**MLaaTR: Cluster Wars**

**

* * *

**

Chapter 2: Upgrade Pains; Old Bot, New Tricks pt.1

* * *

**Cluster Prime**

**Vexus's Palace**

* * *

The gigantic pyramid-shaped hive palace that was the center of the Cluster Empire's capitol was a sight to behold at this point. A hollow iron pyramid, covering an area the size of four city blocks, soared high into the air, silhouetted against the reddening sky in a mix of dark metallic grays and gleaming copper. A skeleton of mega-trusses, crisscrossing in regular triangular patterns, surrounded a central tower of copper and steel over a thousand feet tall. Perched atop the tower, at the very apex of the pyramid, was an immense copper dome topped with a ring of ornately decorated spires. They jutted upwards like jeweled daggers stabbing the clouds, giving the entire dome-structure the appearance of a shining crown. Secondary obelisks stood sentry around the central tower, punching through the pyramid of trusses like javelins. Each was topped with a tall flagpole that flew a huge green-and-red banner, banners so large that they appeared to wave in slow motion – each bearing the royal seal of the C-shaped gear. This was the palace of Queen Vexus, Queen of the almighty Cluster Empire.

Truly, this was a sight to behold, but the true activity, or smack down, was inside the Palace.

* * *

**Throne Room**

* * *

Sitting atop a high-horsed throne, constructed to look like a honeycomb of sorts, sat a very important figure… in her own mind, of course. She was a svelte green, yellow, and black robot of color scheme. Her armor was a combination of a queen pharaoh and a wasp queen of best. She was Vexus, Queen of the Cluster Empire, enemy of all organics, and not a happy fembot at this time.

Queen Vexus eased back and settled into the pillows on her favorite couch - the long one, made from luxurious platinum, covered with a purple metallic silk. A small entourage of robot servants was fawning over her, tending to her every need. A young robot girl bowed reverently, holding a gold-trimmed chalice filled with fine imported lubricant; a pair of maintenance droids worked quickly and silently, polishing and buffing her right forearm. Vexus enjoyed one more sip of lubricant, then waved her hand to the imposing insectoid warriors who composed her Royal Guard. They responded with a quick bow, then pulled open the giant stainless steel doors that led in from the grand hallway.

The queen then turned her attention to the one that she had summoned: Smytus. His failure on board the Inferno did not go unnoticed; the theft of the Pip Crystals was a serious matter to be held on. "Well, Smytus… I must say, this was quite a surprise from the report of the incident on your ship," the queen started, her voice purring with both calm and a touch of anger as her glare at the Cluster Commander didn't change. "Not only did you fail to notice the Abomination, the nanodroid, slip by your defenses again, and escape whilst not even leaving a scratch or sign of injury on himself, yet again," the Queen's voice filled with disgust over the words abomination and nanodroid. But it only got worse for Smytus as his queen's voice got even more angered as she finished, "But do I understand even further, is that you not only let him escape with the Pip Crystals, the one thing that would power the ultimate weapon to defeat XJ-9 as well as that pesky Underground Resistance… but HE ATE IT AS WELL?"

Feeling ten times smaller than he did before his shrinking episode, the Cluster Commander gulped as his voice squeaked out, "Uh… yes?"

"Imbecile! Idiot! Bumbling buffoon!" the Cluster Queen shot at the shrinking visage of the Commander. "It has been over four months since that annoying disgrace of robot kind had come into being. Ever since he joined the Resistance, my plans in trying to enslave the remaining planets in our systems, including Earth, have all failed. Must I send in someone better than you to finish the job?"

"My Queen! My Queen!" someone shouted as they stumbled in clumsy as he stumbled on only one squeaky wheel. The fellow was colored rust red and brown, with a twitchy mustache that acted as a pair of manidbles when he spoke out. He had skinny arms with two pincers that flexed like fingers, and two crazy yellow eyes on his head. The rest of him was shaped like a beetle on one wheel with a scientist's lab apron draped on him. This was Krackus, the bumbling inventor of the Cluster. Not someone you'd want to help you out on taking over the whorld. He stopped stumbling as he stood right next to Smytus, and held up a small computer that seemed to hold a holographic diagram of Drew. "My Queen! I've discovered something of importance! Great importance!"

"It had better be important," Vexus growled silently to make it sound like a purr of sorts. "I didn't give you the notes of the nanobots late inventor to simply mess it up like your previous intentions."

"Oh, but this has to do with the Pip Crystals as well," Krackus stated, now getting everyone's attention as he pointed to the diagram. "It seems that by assimilating such a huge power source, much like the Pip Crystals, would cause much devastative confusion to his nanobots' stabilities."

This caused the Queen and Smytus's faces to contort with interested surprise. Vexus cocked her antennae eyebrow as she leaned in, interested. "And… just what sort of devastated confusion are we talking about?"

"Well, there's such a huge list, I don't know where to begin. But the basic symptoms would be his powers wouldn't work, confusion would set in, constant vomiting, uncontrollable flatulence, drooling, erectile dysfunction…"

"Wait!" Vexus stopped as she asked, "What were the first two?"

"vomiting and erectile?"

"No!" Vexus shouted, "His powers not working!"

"Oh that," Krackus carelessly answered as he shrugged smugly, "Well, he couldn't shape shift nor be able to resist your control, My Queen."

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a moment; this very knowledge earning an evil grin on the Cluster Queen's face. Finally, she chuckled in a small tone, until it erupted in a mighty cackle that shook the room. Then finally, she continued. "As I've said countless times, as far as I am concerned, there are only two types of robots in the universe that concern me. Those I will control … and those I will _destroy_. Am I understood?" the two flunkies nodded in response as she went on. "Howe ever… if this situation should put our abominable problem in a state of helplessness…" she then tapped her fingertips together in a devilish sort of way as she grinned schemingly, "… then now would be the perfect time to put his _helplessness_ to good use once again."

* * *

**Nabholtz Household**

* * *

He didn't know where he was, nor why he was there at the crack of dawn. He was standing on top of the tallest and strongest building in Tremorton, crouched down like an animal, waiting to strike. For some odd sensation and reason, he felt more alive than ever; stronger, faster, his senses all a tingle, and the world below him was his jungle hunting ground. And as the sun rose up, he saw them… people. Their smelly flesh perfumed the air all around him; even though it stank a bit, the smell was intoxicating to his senses. His shoulders arched up, swooning back and forth as he took one leap off the tower, and roared as he pounced towards his first target.

In his bedroom bathroom, the tub rumbled a bit as it was filled with a silver-green metallic dough-like ooze. It swished around nervously, until finally, it shot right out and spilled all over the bathroom floor. With a quick schlerp and a little wave action, Drew formed himself back into his humanoid default setting, along with the hoodie and jean shorts into his default frame. The silver-green ensemble that he had made from his nanobot-composed body was something that he had wanted to do. Considering Jenny had her blue ensemble, he figured it would seem kind of embarrassing to just walk around like he had no clothes while he was in robot mode.

But for now, he just slumped to his knees as he strained to get back up. Apparently the nightmare had taken a lot out of him. He grabbed the sides of the sink as he balanced himself and looked at himself warily at the mirror. "Sheesh, don't I have enough nightmares already?" He pulled his eyelid down to see if his eyes were bloodshot, but stopped as he berated himself, "What am I thinking? I'm an android now; I don't have a circulatory system. And a skeleton. Or organs. Or even muscle for that matter."

"Drew, honey?" Mrs. Nabholtz called from downstairs. "Is everything alright? I heard some sort of crash."

"It's nothing, Mom," Drew innocently lied. "I was just getting up from bed. I kinda stumbled a bit and knocked into the wall a couple of times."

"Are you sure? Did you bang your knee?"

"No, mom. You know I don't feel pain anymore."

"Did you hit your head?"

"No," Drew signed, knowing full well his mom wasn't used to him being an android now. "I'm fine, Mom."

"Did you…"

"I said I'm okay, Mom!" Drew nearly burst into an embarrassed fit. He sighed as he walked over to his backpack, and slapped it on. "I'll be heading to school, 'kay?"

"Okay," his mom's cheerful voice once again ringed through the house. "Make good decisions. Stay out of trouble. And don't do any of that crime-fighting! The last thing I want is for you to covert with that Wakeman Robot!"

Drew sighed as he opened the window, his usual means of avoiding his over-bearing, and slightly twitchy, mother. It would be his usual routine: he'd stretch his legs down to reach the ground and sink back to his normal size and get on the bus. Or if he missed it, he'd keep the extended legs and just run on his stilt legs to get there.

However, that didn't come as today's usual schedule.

As he stepped out of the window, and stuck out his right leg out as he made the thought command to stretch his leg out insanely to touch the bottom. However… it didn't.

Instead he stumbled down, falling down the two story house, and slamming face first into the ground. A few minutes of lying in the ground, until the young silver-green nanodroid finally groaned as he got up, with a clump of dirt and grass in his mouth.

Finally, he spat it out as he looked confused, "What the Schnikey?" he groggily got himself and righted himself. He looked at the imprint that his metallic body had left after he took that nasty and unexpected fall. "Okay," he told himself as he tried to figure out what was going on. "Usually, I'd be making with the stretch and change…" he then looked down as he looked at his opened hands, almost trying to figure out what was going on by looking at them. "It's probably nothing." he then bolted towards the sidewalk and ran as fast as his robotic body would take him. His thoughts continued to ponder the events that happened, 'Just what happened back there? I mean my powers usually work just fine… so what's going on?'

* * *

**Tremorton High**

**History/Current Events Class**

* * *

The class was boring as ever, with Mr. Smellhouse at the board. His attempt to make a combined class with both subjects, Current Events and Ancient History, proved to be quite a mind puzzle to the youngsters of the class. It even proved boring to the adventurer/robotic hero teenagers of the class. Brad, Jenny, and Drew just sat at their desks, sitting close to one another as they tried desperately to focus on the subject of Ancient construction of the Egyptian pyramids being compared to the United Tower's construction in New York.

Brad made it evident that he was bored out of his skull, seeing that he was fighting off the urge from dozing off at this point. "Boo-ring," he toned in as quietly as he could, not catching the attention of their History/Events teacher. He then leaned close to Jenny as he asked, "So, Jenny… why don't you tell me again on how you beat Letta and her space biker gang again last time."

"Cripes. Not again," Jenny groaned at Brad's enthusiasm of her heroics. "That story practically loses its zip after the 100th time." but in truth, Jenny actually liked on how brad always asked her about her adventures. Aside from Tuck, Sheldon, and Drew, Brad always beamed on having her tell her heroics to him during school. It was just one of those times she was glad that Brad was still her best friend. But then she turned to her other friend, who seemed a bit on the distracted side. "Drew?"

"Huh?" the nanodroid snapped out of his daze as he looked to Jenny. "Wha? What'd you say, Jen?"

"Is anything wrong?" Jenny asked, feeling concerned now. "Yesterday, you weren't doing so well, even after the movies."

"Yeah," Brad added. "After you and Tuck left the Restrooms, you were puking up a nano-goo storm. Even in the theaters, you hacked all over the Krust cousins. Though that part was pretty good."

"Easy for you to sya, Brad. You didn't constantly hack up nanobots left to right," Drew groaned at this. He sighed as he mumbled, "I'm just glad that's over with. I stopped hurling silver flakes after I got home last night."

"You know, if you want to I could have my mom take a look at you" Jenny suggested. She then noticed that her belly bolt started to flash and emit a buzzing sound. 'Oh, great. Speak of the devil' A small door in her chest slid open, and out shot a contraption that expanded into a television monitor. The picture snapped on instantly, showing a wild-haired woman with thick glasses and a yellow lab coat. She frowned out of the screen towards Jenny.

"XJ-9!" she shouted. "You bolted right out of the household before we had a chance to talk!"

Jenny waved her hands in front of the screen. "Mom! _Keep it down!_ I'm going to get caught!"

"Young lady, do not tell me to 'keep it down'. This is of paramount importance! It's almost time for your yearly upgrade."

"Mom! How many times have I told you: I'm not getting any upgrade!"

"XJ-9, don't be so stubborn. Give me one reason why it's just a horrid notion to receive an upgrade?"

"Arghhh! Mom, you know what? I've got several. One, those squiggly oversized eyeballs you gave me last time. The giant bumper pack I wore for my old eyes. And let's not forget that other one… involving an update on my communications software."

Brad peeked over Jenny's shoulder. "Mrs. Wakeman, what do you know about ancient history?"

"I know my daughter's becoming ancient history if she doesn't get her upgrades," she huffed, folding her arms.

"I've gotta _go_, Mom, I'm going to get in trouble." she then shoved the TV back into her chest as it closed up. "Sheesh! She just can't take a hint. I don't want an upgrade; all the upgrades she gives me just makes me look like a dork."

"I know," Brad sulked as he sighed. "Photo Day's coming up, and once again I'm under battle against the urge to chocolate gorging." it was then that Brad looked to his left… and out of nowhere, a chocolate bunny materialized there. Brad shielded himself, hissing silently, "Tempting fiend."

Drew just had to chuckle at this little scene as he sighed at the two. "Guess that's one thing I'm glad about being a nanodroid now: I don't have to worry about upgrades or breaking out."

Suddenly, Drew's forehead warbled a bit, and suddenly shooting out from the left and right side of his head, two bumps popped up. Both Brad and Jenny nearly jumped back from the sudden _break out_. Drew had noticed the looks on their faces, and nervously but slowly started to look up, and saw the bumps. In order to reassure himself, he slowly took his hand and touched the bumps, ensuring that his optics weren't malfunctioning. After realizing the growths were real, he shut his eyes tightly as he tried to suck the bumps back into his head.

Nothing happened.

'what the… ?' the nanodroid boy's face twisted in confusion, and squinted back as he shook and groaned. If he had to give himself a strain or a hernia, he was gonna suck the two bumps back into his skull… if he had one.

Both Jenny and Drew looked at their friend, as did the rest of the class, as he was making a scene. Making sure that he wouldn't cause it anymore, before Mr. Smellhouse got even more annoyed, Brad asked, "Um… do you need to go to the restroom, Drew?"

"Uh, guys…" Drew answered, turning to his friends with a paled look on his already pale gray faceplate. "I can't use my nanobot powers."

This earned a surprised look on both teens faces… even as Brad smirked as he seemed to understand something. "No wonder you looked like you were constipated."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Upgrade Pains; Old Bot, New Tricks pt.2**


	4. Upgrade Pains pt2

**MLAATR: Cluster Wars**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Upgrade Pains; Old Bot, New Tricks pt.2**

* * *

**Later that Day**

**Wakeman Household**

**Basement Lab**

Drew was lying flat on a metal table, staring up at an intimidating device that glowed and crackled with orange arcs of electrical discharge. Motors whined, tilting a long metal probe to point directly at his head. A droning hum increased in volume, filling the basement of the Wakeman home. "Um, Dr. Wakeman, not that I don't appreciate this and all, but … is this thing safe?"

The person he was talking to was standing next to Jenny and Brad as the figure worked at the controls. It was an elderly woman, probably seventy-five years old, wild silver hair sticking upward, and wearing red lens bottle glasses. She was thin and around almost Brad's height, wearing a black sweater turtleneck, black stockings, and a yellow lab coat with yellow high heel shoes. This was Dr. Nora Wakeman, scientist extraordinaire, and creator/mother of Jenny, as well as the other XJ series.

"Please! It's _perfectly_ safe," she answered, as she dropped the large black goggles over her eyes. "I've modified this device since last time I did a scan on you, Andrew."

"Doc, thanks for taking the time to do this," Drew said as he tried to be comfortable in this situation.

"Oh, don't worry your nano-chips about thanking me, " Mrs. Wakeman reassured her 'patient' as she finished the final touches. "If I can figure out what's causing your glitches, we might be able to learn another mystery that your Cluster technological Nano-machine body has been deluding me."

"I just hope it's nothing too serious," Jenny replied, rubbing her hands together. A very human bad habit that she had been gaining, just as much as biting nails that didn't exist.

"Oh, it's probably nothing to worry about, XJ-9," her mother reassured. But then she turned around and gave her daughter a stern look. "And don't think that just because I'll be occupied, that I've forgotten about your upgrade."

"UGH! Mom, I'm not getting any stupid upgrade," Jenny protested, turning to her side as she huffed.

"Oh, honestly, XJ-9. You can be so stubborn. Where did you get such tenacity?"

Jenny turned to face her mother with only her side as she answered, "I got it from you, Mom. Remember?"

"Oh, that's right." she chuckled, a bit embarrassed at that realization as she finished the last touch to the machine. "There, it's ready." and before anyone asked, she ran out of the room, and shut the door.

The three teens seemed a bit confused by the doctor's action, until Brad heard his cell phone ring. He pulled it out of his pocket as he answered, "Hello?"

* * *

**China**

Wakeman stood on the Great Wall, at a phone booth where she had parked her rocket car there. She was currently on the phone as she shouted out, "Alright, Bradley! Hit the red button!"

* * *

**Back in Tremorton **

The three teens sighed at this awkward moment, as Brad walked over to the controls, and pressed the red button. Then the two stepped behind a thick metal panel labeled _Blast Shield_. "All right, here we go!" He flipped a knife switch, beneath a sign reading _Danger High Voltage_, and a deep _thrummm_ echoed in the room.

"I guess this time the governor called." Drew gulped as the probe shone with a brilliant white light, spitting off bolts of electricity. The probe fired a bright scanning beam that swept over the length of Drew's metallic body, head to feet and back again. As soon as the equipment had hummed down, the room was safe once again as Brad and Jenny stepped out from behind the barrier.

Suddenly, Mrs. Wakeman boomed back into the room at lightning speed, coming back from her little 'trip' from China. "There," said Mrs. Wakeman, removing her safety equipment, "Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Honestly, teenagers these days are so melodramatic."

Drew slid up, blinking from the lights, and sat on the edge of the table. He pointed at a large video display on the wall. "So what's the damage, Doc? I got a virus?"

Mrs. Wakeman was already studying the full body scan. The image looked like an x-ray, but Drew's insides appeared flowing and featureless. There was a kind of structure, but it spread throughout his body like a honeycomb, rather than a skeleton, or a chassis. Strong and flexible. No bones, no organs, no muscles. No gears, no pumps, no motors. However, there was something amiss with the tick-shaped nanobots. Firing across to one another, green bolts of unstable and rather destructible energy sparked wildly, doing some serious damage.

"Fascinating," she mumbled. "Variable atomic structure. Distributed energy generation. Non-centralized molecular computing. All appear to be normal." She cocked an eyebrow as she stroked her chin in thought. "But this energy signature that your nanobots have generated… completely unknown." it was then that it suddenly clicked. "Wait a minute, that energy signature is unmistakably Pip Crystal based!" She turned her attention to the trio as she deduced the cause of Drew's ailment. "Somehow, and I'm still calculating on how it happened, Andrew's nanobot-based body, has somehow ingested the unstable and rather unpredictable element of Pip Crystals, and are now reeking unimaginable havoc on his systems."

As Mrs. Wakeman was going through reams of data on one of her computer screens, excitedly jotting down notes on a clipboard. "But is Drew gonna be okay, Mom?" Jenny asked, fearing the worst for her friend.

"Yeah, Doc," said Drew, pointing to the video display. "Am I falling apart?"

"Oh, don't be so temperamental and dramatic, you two," Mrs. Wakeman picked up a thin metal wand and walked over next to Drew. "My suspicions could be theorized in that your nanobots are simply trying to upgrade to handle such a power source, Andrew."

The teens in the room gave Mrs. Wakeman a clueless look as they asked. "What?"

Mrs. Wakeman groaned, knowing full well she was gonna have to explain in lament's terms to these kids. "Ugh. The strange behaviors you underwent yesterday and today, the vomiting, your powers not working properly, they're all possible indications that your nanobots are beginning to reformat themselves in order to contain and utilize the energy that the pip crystals have infected your body with."

"There's something that buggin' me," Brad asked as he cocked an eyebrow at Drew. "Just how did you manage to digest Pip Crystals when there aren't any on Earth at all?"

Drew gulped at that question, until Jenny shook her head and answered, "That's easy, Brad. don't forget, Jean Phillipe had a fabric loaded with Pip Crystals that he used to make prom dresses for Brit and Tiff." She groaned as she remembered that was a difficult battle; luckily the Krust Cousins were fashion cautious, so it was easy to trick them to get rid of them. "They must have thrown the fabric out, and Drew must've stumbled on them by accident."

"Yeah, that's sort of how it happened," Drew lied, and everyone buying it. But then he pointed at the two growths at his head as he asked, "But… what's with the devil horns on my head."

"Devil horns?" Tuck asked as he popped out from behind the door, excited as always when it came to something about freaks and monsters. Just a playish boy thing in some cases. He rushed over as he begged, "Let me see! Let me see!" but when Drew turned to face Tuck, the little boy took one look at the two growths on Drew's head… and responded the only way he could. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAH!" Tuck jumped up and clamped onto Jenny's head as he shook with fear.

Ignoring Tuck's usual screaming outburst, Mrs. Wakeman deduced. "I suspect it could be part of the process of reformatting your nanobot body, Andrew." She merely shrugged as she calmly strode over to him and pat him on the shoulder, "It's probably nothing to worry about. Cyber-puberty and all."

"Well, I have my own theory to boast out," Tuck shot out, as an eerie background popped up behind him and his face was a bit overshadowed. "I think the Pip Crystals have infected his body, causing the nanobots to become confused, paranoid, and dangerous. Slowly changing him from within, and turning Drew, slowly but surely, into a… monster… A HIDEOUS MONSTER!"

"You and your wild imagination," Brad groaned as he shook his head. "Seriously, Tuck. This isn't like the nano-tick that Vexus sicked on Jenny, this is Drew's body handling a power overload. C'mon, two pimple bulbs on his skull does not a monster make."

It was then that they all heard something clatter to the ground, as well as a groan from their nanodude friend. They turned their attention, and noticed that Drew was hunched over a bit, as he groaned a bit and noticed the mess he left on the floor. But it wasn't the usual silver green vomit like yesterday… it was his teeth. After he was done groaning, he looked up to everyone… and exposed a set of shark-like teeth in his mouth replacing his human default teeth.

And it wasn't Tuck that screamed… but everyone else did all together. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Seeing them freak out like that, Drew turned around and closed his mouth to hide his new monstrous teeth. After the scream ended, slightly he turned to look at him with his left eye. They were still freaked out, looking at him with big freaked out eyes. Wanting to make sure that they didn't do it again, he faced them, and exposed his teeth. Unfortunately, the screaming started again, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAH!"

Drew's shoulders slumped as he sighed to his friends. "The, uh… screaming, isn't helping my morale, guys."

Sensing his friend's spirit dropping, Jenny shook her head as she walked over to her buddy. "Screaming? No, we were, um… "

"Singing," Brad squeaked out. "Right, Tuck?"

"Are you nuts? I'm screamin' my head off!" Tuck shouted out hysterically. "Look at the size of those knives in his mouth? If he goes robo or human cannibal on us, he's gonna shred us up!"

"Gee, thanks, Tuck," Drew sighed crossing his arms.

However, Mrs. Wakeman walked over as she pried his mouth open to examine Drew's new dentures. "Hmmmm. I'm going to need more study on this." and then sharply turned to Jenny. "And we're still going to talk about your upgrades, young lady. Don't think that this excuses you out of them."

"No, Mom," Jenny protested as she crossed her arms and huffed. "I'm not becoming a bigger freak than you try to make me."

"Young lady…"

"NEEEEEEEERGH!" Jenny whined as she grabbed Drew by the wrist as she and the others walked out of the room, and slammed the door.

Mrs. Wakeman just sighed in exhaustion as she walked over to take the fallen teeth for examination. "Ugh! Stubborn and temperamental. Why did I build a teenage robot?"

* * *

**Early Evening**

**Mezmers**

The coolest hangout for all teens in all of Tremorton was buzzing like crazy. The hip hop music, the shadows of kids dancing being shown in the window, indicated that this was gonna be one heck of a shindig tonight. However, as Tremorton's robotic teens were making their way to it, it was showing much resistant for their silver green friend. Jenny, after stomping out of her home with everyone else, decided they needed to blow some steam off. Brad decided to take them all to Mezmers for the night, but Drew was hesitant. And knowing Jen, she wasn't about to let him go without a fight.

"Jenny, this is serious!" Drew protested, dragging his feet as Jenny pulled him persistently into Mezmers'. however, as she dragged him, he left plow marks of his heels into the pavement as she continued to pull him. "I said no, Jenny! What do I have to do? Make a new word for No?"

"OH, come on, Drew," Jenny stubbornly dragged him in, until she finally yanked him in. "Don't be such a baby!"

"Yeah," Brad encouraged. "Nobody's gonna notice."

Finally, she yanked Drew into the hangout as he stumbled on in, the music seemed to stop as everyone inside took notice. Drew was now sporting a paper boy hat on his head…with the horns sticking out, as well as false teeth in his mouth, sticking out from his lips, giving him the appearance of a duck. All anyone did at that time, was stare at the nanodroid that was once a human named Drew Nabholtz. As he walked in, they just whispered rumors and stiffened chuckling or giggling of sorts. For Drew, this was just unbearable for him to even be in the same room.

He sat down at one of the tables, with Jenny and the others sat down with him. He sighed as he heard the chuckling, "Great, now I feel like an even bigger…**Fool**." his voice had suddenly deepened, causing his friends to gain wide stares at him, as he slapped his hands on his mouth. "**Oh, great. My voice is acting up too.**"

He then jumped out, as even more laughter erupted for the robot boy's awkwardness. Feeling the laughter getting to him, Drew went against his usual calm and cool instincts, and just bolted out of there, spitting out the dentures and throwing away the hat as he bolted out the door and disappearing out fo sight. Jenny, knowing full well that she made him go through this, chased after him outside. As soon as they were outside, they noticed that he was gone. Jenny's pigtails retracted as her rocket boosters came online, and she shot up in the air, to take a look around. 'He has to be somewhere around. He couldn't have gone far.' her eyes scanned around the area, trying to pick up at least one signal from her friend's nanobot based body.

No such luck.

Her shoulders slumped as she hovered down back to the ground as Brad ran up to her. "Any luck, Jen?"

"No, he's completely disappeared off the radar." her pigtails whirred back in place. "We've gotta find him, Brad. We don't know what's happening to him, and…"

"Whoa, take a cool down, Jen," Brad reassured her as he placed his hands on her shoulders. He took notice that she began to bite the tip of her nails, acting like she had fingernails at all. Brad had to grin at seeing such a human reaction coming from Jenny. "We'll find him. I mean, this is Tremorton. He couldn't have gone far from here."

"BRAD! BRAD!"

The two looked as they saw Tucker running towards them… and surprisingly with Allison along with him. The two stopped as the little guy caught his breath. But Brad and Jenny were a little equally confused at seeing their cluster bot friend on Earth like this. "Allison?" Jenny asked as she cocked a non-existent eyebrow. "What are you doing here? I thought you were back on Cluster Prime, leading the resistance?"

"I was, but Tuck called me on Drew's comm back from his house." Allison explained as she placed her slender hand on her chest, over her pump generator as a look of fear on her face was evident. "I got here as fast as I could. Jenny… he told me what's happening to Drew… I… " she nervously rubbed her left arm housing, "I wanna help find him."

"Great," Jenny proclaimed as her left pigtail folded into a small parabolic dish, "We need all the help we can find."

"XJ-9!"

The three teenagers and kid looked as a yellow modified hover converted station wagon sped up towards them. It then skidded to a halt as it did a 90 degree skid to the side, stopping nearly six inches in front of the kids. Surprising them, Mrs. Wakeman was at the driver's seat, earning a confused look from Tuck as he looked to his big brother, "Sheesh, Brad. She's as crazy behind the wheel as you are."

"XJ-9, I'm glad I located you! We need to…" Mrs. Wakeman frantically pointed out, but stopped as she noticed Allison, and went to polite Mom-Mode, "Oh, hello, LSN-1482."

"Hello, Mrs. Wakeman," Allison curtly responded.

Jenny ran over ot the driver's window as Mrs. Wakeman rolled it down. "Mom, what are you doing out here?"

"I've been trying to contact you on your communications, XJ-9. I really need to update that system if it's broken," Mrs. Wakeman scolded. "But that's not important at this time. Andrew's reformation might put him, as well as all of us, in grave danger."

"What do you mean?" Allison walked up, deeply confused, and deeply worried now. "What's wrong with Drew?"

"This, LSN-1482," Mrs. Wakeman pulled up something from her driver seat, making the girls gasp in horror… and Brad and Tuck nearly vomit in a nearby trashcan. In her right hand, was a half-oozing eyeball and nose… colored silver and green. Not wasting time to give the girls and boys a chance to relieve their stomach expelling moment, Mrs. Wakeman feverishly explained, "Andrew's body is entering its pupil stage of reformation."

"Putrid stage?" Tuck asked, wiping his mouth from vomit chunks, "I knew Drew was kinda disgusting before, but how is it he's gonna end up putrid?"

"Pupil, Tucker," Mrs. Wakeman dronely corrected. "Like the butterfly that enters a cocoon, Andrew is entering in such a stage as well. And in this stage, he might be vulnerable as well to subjection got assimilation by the Cluster." She then opened the doors as she explained, "We need to locate him as fast as we can. I have a feeling the Cluster might expect such a moment to strike."

Allison paled at this as she cupped her mouth in fear. The robot boy she fell in love with back on her home world… the one that had given her so much… was in danger. Her face then hardened in determination as she hopped into the car, "We've got to find him. Fast."

"Well, what are we waiting for!" Jenny's pigtails retracted back into rockets, as a pair of rocket wings folded out, "Let's go find him!" the rockets roared to life, and she flew up in the air and out of range like Superman speed.

"Looking around Tremorton might not be enough." Mrs. Wakeman pondered aloud as both the Carbunckle brothers jumped in. "The last thing that most creatures go when they need to hide is a place they know they'll be safe."

"His home?" Brad asked.

"No, somewhere they believe they'll be safe in."

Tuck scratched his chin in thought, pondering on it very hard. "Let's see: where's a place that _only_ Drew would think be safe to go and hide in."

* * *

**Late at Night**

**Tremorton High**

**Basketball Court**

The night was cold and stale as night fell upon the gymnastic building of Tremorton High, and boy was it ever a frightful sight. The streets and sidewalks darkened and only lit up by the moonlight, all shaped like some sort of ghoul, angel, or gargoyle. The whole school buildings darkened by the rain clouds that were coming in. And what made it even far worse for anyone who was traveling in at that night, a low cloud of mist shrouded the ground, and eerie owl hoots filled the air with a small hint of eeriness only found in a horror movie. Truly… this was the set for a horror film, and it would have been foolish for a few to venture out in this frightful place.

Leading the way, holding a radio-based tracking device, hooked up to Allison with her foil hair folded up into a parabolic dish, was Mrs. Wakeman as she led the way. Following the two were the Carbunckle boys, Brad with a wooden bat, and Tuck along for the ride. However, the kids had gotten this far by following Mrs. Wakeman in the lead, even when she was driving her car to the basketball gym court, all thanks to Tuck's guess of the school. But they were still trying to figure out where Mrs. Wakeman was going to. While she still held on to the tracking device, Allison didn't get what was going on, and neither did the boys.

It was then that high time now, Allison had to sigh and turn to the good doctor. "Mrs. Wakeman, you have to clarify things for us. I know that Drew's going through a reformatting… but what's with all the weird changes, and his body parts falling off?"

"Well, when trying to improve on a home, it's a huge fixer upper. You start rearranging." Mrs. Wakeman explained. "I think that's what the nanobots are doing: they're rearranging Andrew's structure in order to protect him in his vulnerable state."

"But why's that so dangerous?" Brad asked. "This is Drew we're talking about, you know. He's about as vicious as a gnat."

Mrs. Wakeman's attention was still focused on the device as she continued to scan as they opened the gym doors… which had been torn loose from their locks. "Bradley, you're missing the point. Because of this rapid change, Andrew's very mentality will be seriously weakened. During his pupil stage, he'll have the intelligence and instinct of that of a wild animal. In that state, he won't be able to tell who's friend or foe. Hunting anything or everything that moves… with no memory or remorse of those that are important to him."

After hearing that, Tuck gulped as he squeaked, "On second thought, maybe we should just leave him be until Jenny gets here."

"There's no time," Mrs. Wakeman replied as she pulled out what appeared to be radio antenna clamps. "We need to attach these to him, and the other set to an external power terminal. The sudden jolt of 1.21 giga-watts should be able to cause the second state of his evolution to finish. Afterwards, he should be normal again."

It was then that Allison turned to Mrs. Wakeman, as they walked down the hallway with the signal getting stronger. "Um, Mrs. Wakeman? Just hypothetically speaking… " she rubbed her left arm housing nervously once again as she finished, "… what'll happen if it doesn't turn him to normal?"

"Then…" Mrs. Wakeman sighed as she answered. "… it might turn him into a vegetable, frying every one of his systems, with no chance of a reboot."

Allison's face couldn't get any paler than that, 'No. please, don't… don't let that happen…' she then looked to Mrs. Wakeman as she asked, "Mrs. Wakeman… what if he can't go back to being 'Drew'? what if we don't succeed?"

"We must succeed. For Andrew's sake," She answered as she stopped, along with everyone else as he pointed forward, "It seems we've arrived."

Everyone looked ahead and either gulped in determination, or went white as a sheet, like Tucker did. They saw that the signal had led them to the doors of the basketball stadium inside the gym. Despite the fact that the windows were black from lack of light, someone had obviously been there, considering the doors were torn open by some unseen force.

Tuck gulped at all this as he shivered with fear, "Ugh. It had to pick a place like that," and then was about to walk back outside, "Well, that's it. Time to go home. It's past my bedtime anyway, and I got a Spelling Bee to get ready for."

But then Brad grabbed on to his little brother's collar fur as he raised an eyebrow, "Hold on. We're here to do a job; and we're gonna finish it right now."

And then they all proceeded into the basketball stadium, with Tuck whimpering from behind in a high squeaky voice, "Why me? Why did I have to go with these suicidal people?"

They all walked into the empty court, seeing that no one had been here for some time. They waltzed or staggered right on in, keeping their guard from side by side as they traversed inside the stadium. However as they went in, they failed to notice the strange insect shadows luring from above the light railing of the building. However, they all stopped as they saw someone kneeling in the center of the court floor.

It was only a few seconds, but everyone saw the figure at the center of the court. The person was none other than Drew, his arms wrapped around his chest and kneeling in the ground; his face, while missing an eye, twisted in pain as he looked like he was struggling.

"Drew!" Allison rushed over to him, ignoring the warnings from Mrs. Wakeman and the boys as she knelt down next to her boyfriend, "We're here to help. Are you okay?"

"I… I don't… GUAGH!" Drew clutched his chest even tighter as he nearly screamed out in pain and struggle.

"Hang, on. I'll bring over Mrs. Wakeman," Allison told him, but then felt an iron grip on her left wrist as she got up. She turned and was nearly scared out of his wits end at what he saw. Drew's hand grabbed her only his hand started to grow and the outer part started to shred or melt off, revealing a silver green hand with black claws at the end of the finger tips, his forearm also grew in length as a black spike jotted out of his shoulder. "Drew!"

Suddenly, he let go just to backhand her in the face. Allison flew back a few feet, hitting the stadium benches, and was a little dazed from the blow.

Then suddenly, Drew felt himself being torn apart from the inside, causing him to gag from the pressure on his back. His whole body twisted and grew, as the outer layer of his body started to ooze and fall apart, falling to the ground like dead skin. Out of his butt, a long tail jotted out with a spear tip at the end. His feet burst open to reveal hind legs with the feet jetting out two sharp velociraptor-like sickle ankle claws. His torso thinned out and a ribcage-like structure armored and muscled to the max. The muscles, not being mechanical, were organic as they twined and pulsed as if they were alive. Jotting out of his back, three spike-shaped tail pipes shot out from both sides of his back, hissing out what appeared to be green smoke of sorts. Drew's face twisted in agony, as four spike mandibles ripped through his mouth, his hair falling out as the spikes grew and sharp tendril like dreadlocks grew out from the back of his head. Then finally, his remaining eye oozed out of his skull as his face broke apart and fell to the floor, leaving only a skull like head of monstrous proportions, leaving only that which changed before.

Allison looked in terror, as the creature that was once Drew, stood up on its hind legs… and roared viciously out to the ceiling, flexing its claws.

She cupped her mouth as a saddened and terrified voice squeaked from her, "No… no… Drew…"

Brad gulped as he paled at Drew's transformation. "Okay… this would be a really good time for Jenny to fly in and save the day."

Suddenly, a familiar cackle echoed all over the stadium, catching everyone's attention. The laughter continued to grow louder and louder as the four tried to look around frantically to see where the cackling was coming from. Suddenly, the lights shot awake as they all centered at the other side of the stadium. There, standing on the mid benches, was Vexus, along with Smytus, and a couple of armored Black Mantis Drones, the Royal Bodyguards of the Queen herself, and one of them had oversized shoulder guards.

Vexus nearly cackled her head off as she wiped an alcoholic tear away. "My, what a difference a reformatting does for a young robot." the creature that was Drew snarled as he hunched over, sniffing from side to side as Vexus continued to gloat in this scene. "One day the abomination is a thorn in my sides, siding with those who would threaten what I've built over three thousand years, and the next day… he becomes an obedient pet."

"I should've known you'd take advantage of Andrew's weakened state," Mrs. Wakeman snarled out as she glared at the Cluster Queen. "But you can't take control of him. Even if he's like that, his mind will still fight against your control!"

"Oh, I don't intend to control him," Vexus chirped as she tapped her fingers together. She then looked to Smytus, as he took a simple brick… and chucked it right at Drew.

The brick hit him directly on the side of his head, not even hurting him, but shook him on high alert. He snarled as he looked at Vexus and Smytus, as the Cluster Commander pointed to Wakeman and her group. "They're the ones! They attacked you!"

Drew's empty eye sockets stretched to angered slits, his mandible mouth snarled at the humans and LSN robot. Until finally, he roared out in rage. After the roar ended, Tuck simply said as he paled to his brother, "I think I just did something involuntary… and messy."

Going on all fours, the Drew creature lurked towards the four, as Brad helped Allison up on her feet. The two teens, plus kid, looked terrified as the creature slowly stalked towards them like a lion, hunting his prey down. The scene looked terrifying, as the five or six foot teens looked at the nine foot beast coming towards them. His tail swishing slowly but dangerously as the spear tip slashed at the floor, making marks into it, his claws digging into the floor as well along with the dreadlocks hanging loosely to the ground.

Thinking there was a way to reason with him, Brad gulped as he defended, "Drew, come on, man. You've fought over control from an evil mastermind before, you can do this. C'mon, Drew, its us! It's me, Brad, Tuck, and Ally. Your best friend, best bud, and your main squeeze!"

"MWAHAHAHAHA!" Smytus bellowed out as he couldn't help but cackle at this joyous scene. "Foolish fleshopods! He only remembers what his basic instincts tell him to know. Namely to attack all threats he doesn't recognize as friend or foe."

"Correct, Smytus," the Queen smirked in this triumph. "And once he's dealt with all of you, XJ-9 will be an easy target. After she's destroyed him, what will be left of her shall be an easy victory to assimilate to the Cluster Empire. And with her on our side, not only with this puny planet fall, but the remainder of those that are still left for me to conquer."

Drew then charged right towards them, gnawing his jaws together, making sickening growling sounds. And as just as he was about to pounce on them, a ten foot blue safe broke through the roof, and crashed directly on to him, burying him into the floor. Everyone, both Earth and Cluster, were a bit startled by this scene as they saw the safe. Just where did a blue safe come from, and who brought it? Suddenly, their question was answered as they saw the safe splitting and folding in different sections, until finally, Jenny returned to her default state from one of her many battle transformations.

"Hey, guys. What's up?" Jenny smirked as she waved confidently.

"Jenny!" Brad shouted in delight, but then pointed to the creature. "Jenny, you gotta be careful! Drew's on a confused animalistic rampage!"

"Wha?" Jenny asked cocking an eyebrow, but was suddenly thrown into the benches, denting them. She got up shaking her head, and noticed the creature emerging from the crater she had made. She didn't know what it was, until she noticed the green chip patterns on its body. "Drew?"

"Yes, little XJ-9," Smytus bellowed out, getting her attention as she saw him, Vexus, and several Black Mantis drones along him. "Your friend, in his confused state, has come to realize his place. As will you once he's defeated you; that will show you to your true destiny."

Jenny simply joked as she gave him a confident smirk, "Umm… to become wildly accepted as a normal teenage girl?"

"NO! To be one with the Cluster!" Smytus then pointed at her as he commanded, "Take her!"

"I'll leave this all to you, Smytus," Vexus chuckled as she slashed open a portal back to Cluster Prime. "Don't let me down… again." and then flew on in as it closed up behind her.

The Black Mantis drones, at least three of them, forgetting that the Nanodroid was out there, attacked the teenage robot girl. Jenny smirked as she jumped up and turned 90 degrees vertically, causing her waist to stretch out, as three paddle ball sticks folded out. As the Black Mantis drones charged at her, the paddles smacked them away in different directions. They crashed in different areas, groaning as they steadied themselves to get up.

Jenny retracted back as she clanked her hips on her waist in triumph, "Either on Cluster Prime or here on Earth, you Black Mantis drones still can't touch me."

Then suddenly, a massive black beam of energy shot right at her, blowing her into the wall, creating a small blast. As the blast subsided… coming from the drone with the oversized shoulders. They had opened to reveal powerful lasers of sorts as the energy started to power down a bit. Smytus chuckled as he explained and pointed to the drone, "How do you like the new high output laser cannons. And the best part is, they're not even oscillators. Making this Black Mantis drone the perfect fighting machine."

Jenny groaned as she got out of the crater. Her body was a bit dented, and some of her joints were a little loose from such a blast. But still, she stood her ground as her left elbow cracked open, and out came her Laser limb attachment. Out of her right palm, a blade shot out as she was battle ready against the Black Mantis that charged at her. "Okay, boys," Jenny hissed at her pigtails transformed into head mounted laser cannons, "Time to show you why your buddies get sent back in pieces."

"Oh, really," Smytus taunted, and looked to the Black Mantis guard, and the mindless monster that was once Drew, and shouted, "ATTACK!"

Sensing hostility, Drew snarled at Smytus, whom was a bit surprised at the beast about to attack not the humans or Jenny, but him. Smytus snarled as he ordered, "You dare to snarl at me? I am your master! And you will obey me! OBEY MEEEE!" the beast continued to snarl at him. But Smytus gulped, and squeaked out, "Please?"

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWRRRR RRRR!

The Drew beast charged at the whimpering commander, as Smytus screamed like a little girl, flying all around the basketball court. The Drew Beast continued to go after him, as he didn't let anything get in his way. Meanwhile, Jenny fired her pigtail boosters to go straight towards the Advanced Black Mantis Guard soldiers. She smirked as she balled her fists, "Okay, Black Mantis drones, get ready for…"

SPUT! SPUT! SPUUUUT!

CRASH!

Jenny skidded to the ground in a heap, only seven feet away from the drones. Getting herself back up groggily, she shook off her crash, and looked up to her pigtails, "Wh-What?" the pigtails drooped, sputtering until they slumped down dead. She frowned, "What the? What's going on?" she got back to her feet, and looked to the Black Mantis drones, as she aimed her Laser Limb at them, "Oh, forget the flight mode. I'll just do it by foot." But then suddenly, her laser limb fell off, along iwht her right forearm and hand. The same thing happened with her left arm, and all Jenny could do was stand there, unarmed, so to speak.

"Wha? What's going on? I wasn't hit that hard," Jenny pondered, but then felt imbalanced as she collapsed on one knee. Struggling to get back up, she found she had no strength, and started to nearly panic, "Wh-What's going on? I powered up this morning! I should be able to get back up! What's happening to me?"

"Your systems have become outdated, XJ-9!" Mrs. Wakeman shouted, getting her daughter's attention. "That's why I urged you to take them; it was a full reformation of not just your external, but internal systems. Your chassis was only built to sustain five years. The upgrades would've lasted until your college years. Without those upgrades, your outdated systems would fail, and reduce you to this weakened state!"

Jenny blinked at that, and slumped, grumbling, "Now she tells me."

Suddenly, Jenny felt shadows all around her, as she looked up, and saw the five Black Mantis bots before her, all around her, trapping the helpless Global Response Unit. The leading Black Mantis, the one with the shoulder cannons, cracked his knuckles, as he chuckled, "Here that, boys. The high and mighty XJ-9's as helpless as a newborn protoform." He then shouted, "TAKE HER!" and they jumped at her, pounding their fists into her relentlessly, without holding back or none.

Brad paled at this, as he shouted, "JENNY!"

He was about to charge in there, but Mrs. Wakeman stopped him, "Bradley, we can't help her. The only hope we have for all of us, is to snap Drew out of his state." She pulled out a pair of clamps and handed them to Ally, "LSN, Tucker. I need you two to attach these clamps to that power box over there."

Allison took the clamps but asked, "Where?"

"There," Mrs. Wakeman pointed out, to the other side of the gym… the one were the Black Mantis Drones and a confused and monsterized Drew was chasing Smytus, who was still screaming like a little girl.

Seeing the scene before her, she gulped, but shook her head, as her resolve hardened, "Okay, nothing too hard to handle."

Tuck slapped his face, as he groaned, "It's just one of those days."

"Go!" Wakeman shouted to the two, as they bolted to the end of the room. Mrs. Wakeman and Brad ran towards Drew, who had cornered a now whimpering and crying hysterically Smytus in a corner. "Andrew, stop this foolishness," Wakeman shouted, getting the robot-boy's attention, as she pulled out a pair of clamps of her own, "We need you to put these on your head, so that we may get you back to normal, and save XJ-9."

But all that got from Drew, was a loud and monstrous roar, "ROOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWARRRRRR!"

The wind from the roar caused the two to have their hair stand on end. Once they shook their dos back, Mrs. Wakeman looked to Brad, as he asked, "So… what do we do now?"

"We should flee in terror all around the stadium," Mrs. Wakeman calmly answered, as the Drew Beast growled at them, nano-saliva dripping from his gnaw. "Yes, that would be the wisest course." And the two bolted, with Drew chasing them on all fours. As they ran, Tucker and Allison were making their way through the chaos, while Mrs. Wakeman shouted, "Young man, stop trying to kill the human race, this instant. Or I'll notify your parents of this, and they'll have you grounded!" She wheezed out, as she huffed, "I… really need to start… my spinning classes…"

Drew stopped for a moment, and looked at a tractor-sized waxing machine. Using his tail, he batted the machine towards Brad and Wakeman, causing it to crash in front of them, stopping them both in their tracks. The two turned around to run for it, only to come face-to-chest with a hulking Drew Monster, as it hovered above them, his fangs and claws exposed for the kill. Brad gulped, as he looked to Mrs. Wakeman, "Mrs. Wakeman, I have something to tell you."

Mrs. Wakeman was a bit surprised by that, but shook her head, scowling, "Oh, Bradley, please! I already had a seventy-year-old Sheldon take interest in me. Don't start…"

"No, not that," Brad corrected her, "I'm trying to say… I always thought… you were really weird."

Mrs. Wakeman blinked in surprise, but nodded, "Same to you, Bradley Carbunkle. But then again, XJ-9 always thought of you as good company. So I doubt I could say the same to you and your brother."

At the power box, Allison got the fuse box open, and was about to clamp the clamps on to the positive and negative. Until Smytus flew up behind her, and pulled her away, snarling, "Gimmie those, traitor!"

"Tuck, catch," Allison shouted, tossing the clamps to Tuck.

The little boy grabbed them, but then gulped as he saw Smytus, who still held Allison hostage, snarl at him, "Hand over those clamps, Dwarf human. Or suffer annihilation!"

At this moment, the only thing Tuck could do for this situation was his usual response to everything. A loud scream in panic, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

But just as Drew was about to devour Brad and Mrs. Wakeman, he stopped as the young boy's scream echoed throughout the stadium, earning Drew's undivided and limited attention. He turned and saw the little boy, screaming his head off, as he ran around in circles near the powerbox. At that moment, Drew's face contorted from vicious to confused, as he looked to the boy. Suddnely… memories flashed in the creature's head. Memories of that same boy screaming his head off as memories of him, his brother, and the old woman about to be attacked by Cluster roach drones. The same boy screamed his head off, as he clamped onto a silver green robot boy, as they escaped an exploding asteroid station. And the same boy freaked out… after seeing a giant monster car tire.

Suddenly, the boy's scream seemed to awaken within the beast, as his face twisted in a confused state, and asked in a gluttorial tone, "TU-U-U-CK?"

Brad saw this as their only chance, as he grabbed the clamps, and jumped at Drew. He clamped them on the upper mandibles, and landed as he shouted, "TUCK, NOW!"

Snapping out of his screaming spell, Tuck hopped up, clamping the power box, and hopped up again to switch the power on. The two pairs of clamps lit up, as electricity surged on through them. Once that happened, the Drew Monster was jolted with 1.21 giga-watts of electricity. The Monster roared out in pain, as his entire frame was lit up, with lightning and electricity dancing all over it. It fell on all fours, shaking all over until it hopped back on its back feet, and roared aloud, and then crashed to the ground, dead as a doornail. The Drew Monster, had finally been defeated, but now… was Drew going to be okay?

"Drew!" Allison cried out, in fear if he didn't surive, while struggling to break free of Smytus' grip. "Lemme go, you buck-toothed excuse of a Cluster Warrior!"

"What?" Smytus snarled, "How dare you! Black Mantis Drones!" the drones stopped their relentless smack down on Jenny, as they turned to face their master, while one drone held a severed leg. "The Abomination has fallen! I now have the leader of the Cluster Resistance, Victory is ours!" He then pushed a button on his hover platform, as a Cluster Bridge Gate opened up, "Now, scoop up the remains of XJ-9, and we can be on our way to Cluster Prime."

The drones nodded, as they scooped up all the battered bits of Jenny, her head saved last, as a frozen look of depression of her failure as on her face. The drones marched towards their master, ignoring the scared little boy running past them, as well as the continued screams from Allison, as she tried to get out from the Cluster Commander's grip. "Let go of me, you blockhead! Drew! Wake up, please! DREEEWWW!"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! Your abominable boyfriend can't help you now," Smytus bellowed, as he and his troops neared the portal, "No one can help you, the earth, or the universe now! AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAAAAAA!"

* * *

**Back with the Others**

Mrs. Wakeman was examining the charcoaled remains of Drew, hoping to see if there was still life in the nano-droid's body. Meanwhile, Brad was doing his best to give the appeared-dead droid's attention. "C'mon, Drew. Snap out of it; the fight's not over," he then proceeded to smack Drew's mutated face around comically, "He's taking Jenny and Ally back to the Cluster! To get assimilated or worse… SCRAPPED!"

Suddenly, Tuck slid on in, and heard that last part, "Jenny… and Drew's Sugar-Bot… assimilated and/or scrapped?" Hearing that information, Tuck let out the big one. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The panicked scream echoed all over the stadium, causing the Cluster Troops to stop in their tracks, as they held their audio sensors closed. Even Allison did the same, while Smytus could grit his teeth in agony. However, the scream caused seomthing to happen with the charred carcass that was the Drew Monster. The boy stopped, as he, Brad, and Mrs. Wakeman noticed movement from the monster's body. It was as if something was trying to get out of it, as the back bulged upward, almost as if something was trapped in there. Then suddenly, something broke through, as a silver/green bladed claw hand shot outward, stretching towards the skies.

This little scene caused Tuck to scream out again, "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" he coughed for a moment, as he cleared his throat, "Man, this many screams in one day." But then he noticed a figure forcing himself out of the Drew Monster's body, showing only his upper torso freed. Freaked out again, Tuck sighed, "Here we go again. AAAAAH…"

But the figure clasped a silver/green hand on the boy's mouth, and slurped towards him… revealing itself to be a very much annoyed Drew, as he groaned, "Tuck… do you have to yell that loud, all the time?"

Seeing Drew back to normal, Tuck broke free of the boy's grip, and leapt at his face, hugging the boy, as he cried out in joy, "He's back! Drew's Back! Our silver/green puddle of metallic goo's back to normal again."

"Alright," Brad pried Tuck away, as he padded Drew on the back, "Good to see your devil horns, shark teeth, and… um, well the whole you back to normal."

As Drew slurped his way out, he stood up, and arched an eyebrow, "Wait. You mean… I'm back to normal again?"

Mrs. Wakeman walked up, and pulled out a portable compact mirror, as she handed it to him, "See for yourself, Andrew."

Drew took the mirror in his hands, and saw for himself, he had reverted back to his Nano-droid form. He smiled a little, but to make sure he was completely normal, he did a check. In a wave emanating from his body, he immediately morphed into Brad, and then to Mrs. Wakeman, then a Cluster Drone, and then Smytus. He then reverted back to himself, and checked his right hand, as he morphed it into a machete, then a double-bladed axe, then a spork. He then reverted it back to normal again, as his smile brightened more as he stretched his arm out, twisted, flattened, inflated, and more so as he reverted it back to normal.

He looked at the mirror, and shouted, "I'm normal again! I'M NORMAL!" But then suddenly, the green chip imprints in his hair suddenly glowed, traveling to his eyes. Then his eyes suddenly glowed green, and spareked with green electricity, until finally…

ZAAAP!

A pair of bright green energy blasts blew threw his eyes, and disintegrated the compact mirror. And also made a pair of smoky holes behind Brad and , whose left and right sleeves were halfway smoked through. His eyes returned to normal, as he realized what had happened, and sheepishly smirked in embarrassment, "Um, well… almost normal."

Brad, whose eyes were as wide as saucers, merely stated, "That was new."

"Well, while you two are having a blast, so to speak," Mrs. Wakeman calmly replied, but then pointed out in panic, "THE CLUSTER ARE LEAVING WITH XJ-9 AND LSN-1482!"

Drew whipped around, and saw what was going on, but then hardened a determined glare at Smytus and the Black Mantis drones. He turned to face them, and ran towards them, as his forearms morphed into a pair of machete bladed swords, "No, they're not!"

* * *

**Next Chapter: Upgrade Pains; Old Bot, New Tricks pt.3**


	5. Upgrade Pains pt3

**MLAATR: Cluster Wars**

* * *

**Chatper 4: Upgrade Pains; Old Bot, New Tricks pt.3**

* * *

**Back with Smytus**

Allison was still struggling with the Commanding Cluster Bot, while the Black Mantis drones were waiting to go through with the pieces of XJ-9. "Quit your struggling, LSN drone. Your actions will have you scrapped before our Mighty Queen Vexus," Smytus chuckled, as he whispered, "But not before our might queen tortures you for all the information on the Underground's secret location. Once that's found, we shall wipe away the slate of this Resistance and Freedom from the Cluster nonsense."

"HEY, SMYTEY BUTTT BOTTOM," Drew shouted, getting the Cluster Commander's, the Black Mantis Drones, and even Ally's attention. They all saw Drew charging forward, blades in arms, as he shouted, "You ready for round 3?"

Allison's eyes and smile couldn't get any bigger, as she saw her boyfriend back to normal, and still functional, "Drew!"

"The abomination? ALIVE!? AND REPAIRED?! INCONCIEVEABLE!" Smytus shouted, still in shock at seeing Drew alive. But he shook it off, and shouted to the Black Mantis Drones, "Drones! Destroy the abomination!"

The Black Mantis drones immediately dropped the pieces of XJ-9, and charged forward to the nano-droid.

The first row of Black Mantis drones charged. A pair of giant claws swung at him …

And missed badly, as his liquid body folded and twisted out of the way. Frustrated, the three drones churned their arms through the air, swinging their blades at the evasive silver/green android; but he kept stretching, and dodging, and twisting out of their reach. Finally, after Drew had twisted himself into a surreal, inhuman pretzel, two of the drones coordinated their efforts, and sliced him through the waist. Both halves of his body fell to the ground with a moist _thud_. Four drones took aim with their antennae and claw blasters, ready to turn the irritating android into a charred cinder.

But to their amazement, he quickly liquefied into a large metallic puddle, which rippled like silver gelatin. One curious red drone leaned over to inspect the shiny pool … and was brutally knocked back, as a large silver-green spike lunged out of the puddle, and rammed it clean through the chest. The rest of the nano-goo leapt through the hole, and Drew oozed himself back into humanoid form on the other side.

Drew grew his arms into another pair of long, nano-edged blades, and swung them furiously at the next row of drones. These robots weren't caught by surprise, and they countered him with their own blade weapons. A robot swordfight briefly erupted in the middle of the basketball court, and although Drew's perfect nano-blades were superior weapons, he was outnumbered and completely surrounded. Although one to seven wasn't technically outnumbered, and Drew had faced bigger numbers before on his missions. His sensors told him that the other four Black Mantis drones were right behind him. A pair of blades sliced through the air, aiming for his head …

But Drew's head and torso split neatly in half, like a giant tuning fork, and folded out of the way. The attacking drone fell forward and planted his claw-blades directly through the chest panel of one of his comrades. In that moment of confusion, two silver-green stalks swung into the air, like a pair of scorpion tails, and sliced into two of the drones, severing their upper torsos. A fresh pool of oil and hydraulics spurted onto the court floor, and a pair of severed drone-upper torsos fell to the ground, twitching like robotic serpents.

The sound of shredding metal overpowered the _clangs _and _swishes_ of swinging claw-blades. A Cluster drone had finally pierced the nano-droid's back. Drew looked back towards the drone that did the action, even as a fresh wave of angry, frustrated drones charged his amorphous form. The drones swung their powerful robotic claws at the shiny goo …

And grabbed onto nothing. The metallic nano-sludge catapulted itself out of the mob, like a squirt of water from a fountain. With a thick, bubbling _schlorrrp_, the liquid slopped itself into android form, and Drew clumsily landed behind an unsuspected Black Mantis drone, just as it was about to blast at him from behind him. He grabbed its insectoid arms from behind, with his hands already shimmering in patterns of silver-green. The drone shuddered as its arms popped off at the shoulders, dissolved through by Drew's nanobots.

Drew took a quick moment to relax. Unfortunately, that's when another drone beside him took aim with his laser. With a bright crimson blast, Drew's head vaporized into a cloud of powdery gray ash. The drone grinned as it watched the headless android wobble for a moment … then, to its astonishment, the android turned towards him, and planted its fists on its hips. Its neck started to gurgle, and then a fresh blob of silver-green bubbled up, stretching and oozing until the silver android was whole once more.

"Hey, that's my _head_!" shouted Drew. "Do you have any idea how many headaches I get from that kind of thing!"

He raised his arm to the stunned drone's chest, and a barrage of nano-edged spikes shot through the thick metal shell, turning him into a Black Mantis pin cushion. Then he quickly turned to shield himself from the group of the remaining and advancing drones. Even as they hacked at his arm-spikes with their blade-weapons, he saw two more drones charging at him. They shot their lasers at him, causing laser burns and holes to appear on his body. Drew flowed into a puddle and rolled under the legs of the baffled roach-drones. With a whining _schweerrp_, a pair of arms sprang up, and grabbed another drone by the base of its antennaes, pulling them away from the others.

Drew wrestled ineffectively with the Black Mantis as he morphed back to humanoid form. As he tried to rip off the drone's antennae, he placed his hand against the back of its head …and the drone went numb, its arms and antennae hanging limp. He didn't have time to take control of the black mantis, as more lasers screeched at him from a dozen charging roaches.

He spun his inert drone around, using it as a shield. 'Yeesh! You'd think after what I did to the compact mirror, I'd have lasers now,' Drew thought. 'I could use a little firepower here…'

Suddenly, as if his nanobots read his thoughts, his right forearm suddenly _schlerrped_… and then..

_KA-BLAM!_

The Black Mantis drone dropped to the ground, with a sparking smoking spot to where its head was at. Drew blinked for a moment, and saw what had happened to his arm. From forearm to his hand, it became a techno-organic blaster cannon of sorts; it was a smooth shaft, with a blub at the forearm elbow, with the green circuitry racing down from a green circle lens on the side of his forearm, to the cannon barrel.

Drew blinked at this, as it suddenly came to realization, as he whispered, "I can shoot lasers?" The sudden realization as to what was going on, and an immediate small smile started to grow on Drew's face, as he shouted with a satisfied feel of success washing over him, "I CAN SHOOT LASERS NOW! AND THEY'RE NOT BLOWING UP!" His calm finally regained again, as he smirked evilly at the surprised Black Mantis drones, as he smirked, "This, my evil henchman adversaries, is a good news/bad news scenario. Good news for me…" And aimed his blaster limb at them, as he formed another one with his left forearm and hand, "… but Bad news for you, guys."

A stunned Black Mantis drone, standing a few feet away, raised its own lasers to attack… but Drew's arm shot out two green energy blasts as big as a tennis ball; one blasting through the chest, and the other punched into its head. Now two Cluster Black Mantis drones were down for the count. Now all that was left was to take down the remaining four or five, and be done with it.

"All right! This is _sweeeet_!" He couldn't help himself; he was getting a kick out of the bewildered looks on the faces of the Cluster's Elite Guards, though he didn't have a kick out of it before. He just didn't do it with his own set of blasters. "Check it out!" His face squinted and stretched, until he looked like that old Western star, Kent Westwood, and spoke in his voice, "Go ahead. Make my millennium."

"ARRGHHH!" Smytus screamed from his platform perch, still holding on to Allison as his hostage. His eyes were crackling with fury; he was _this_ close to victory by taking both XJ-9 and the LSN rogue. And now, the only thing standing in the way of all that… was that bizarre silver abominable _idiot_. The orb above her head glowed a furious orange. "All robots, converge on that silver android and wipe it from existence! NOW!"

Now the robots turned their weapons away from the prisoners, and joined the remaining Cluster drones in a renewed assault on the lone silver-green obstacle.

"Still glad Jenny's gone all to pieces, you nimrods?" Drew taunted the Black Mantis drones.

The small group of Black Mantis drones brought their lasers to full charge, and opened up a withering barrage on their target. Drew shook and shuddered under the rapid-fire impact of so many weapons at once. A lot of the shots were blasting into his body, but he couldn't move from such a force of barrage of blasts. He winced as a pair of shots seared through his body, punching out a pair of six-inch holes. 'Okay, standing still and getting shot ain't much of a strategy,' he thought to himself. ' I've got to keep moving here.'

He morphed his left arm back into a machete, but kept his right arm into a blaster, and launched himself in a random direction towards a group of drones, frantically trying to come up with ideas. His body stretched and twisted madly through the crowd, flinging his arms like whips. Another set of nano-blades grew in his back, and sliced through a pair of drones; then a laser blast shattered the blades, and they crumbled into a pile of fine gray dust. He grabbed onto a nearby drone with his feet, pinning it to the ground as his body turned into a silver battering ram. He landed two crushing blows to the drone's head, and finished him off with a blast from his right cannon. But not before a powerful punch knocked him away.

Another drone grabbed him from behind, holding him tight as four drones took aim with their weapons. Just as they opened fire, Drew's body expanded outward into a giant silver donut. The lasers passed right through the hole in the middle, obliterating the drone. The surreal silver-green form, looking like a piece of modern art, swooped over their heads in an arch. Suddenly, forming all around the arch were cannon barrels, and fired off the green energy, blowing huge holes in two, while disabling the others.

But then Drew felt six robotic claws close around his body, trying to pull him apart like a giant strand of silver taffy. He oozed and flowed, escaping from four of them, but the other two yanked hard, and snapped his body through the air like a rope. Loops of silver-green play-doh plopped down in a pile on the sidewalk, and liquefied into a metallic puddle once again – but the remaining Cluster drones pounced on him, and pumped his body with blast after blast of relentless laser fire. Drew could feel chunks of himself being vaporized into ash. He had lost about half of his body mass in the battle so far …

He squirted into the air, wrapping himself around a dead Black Mantis drone's face. The drone's lifeless shell twitched madly at him, trying to pull the silver-green blob away – but his comrades weren't going to take chances. The unlucky half-scrapped drone jerked about like a marionette off his strings, as his Cluster brothers blasted it with their lasers. Then a shot to the chest catapulted it backwards, into the side of the stadium bleachers. With a horrific crash, the bleachers were nearly splinters from the impact, and the Black Mantis drone rolled into the middle of the stadium floor.

The Cluster forces had been reduced by almost a third; Drew had given them more of a fight than anyone had expected, but that fight was about to end. The drones poured into the court, ready to finish off the remains of the shape-shifting android. The badly damaged and downed drone suddenly came back to life, and managed to sit up with a feeble metallic _creak_, and looked down onto its chest. It was covered with a large blob of silver/green molasses; an angry silver amoeba, shimmering with wild, rippling patterns of green.

To the drones' horror, the silver slime started to engulf the seemingly animated body of the dead drone. Waving its arms in panic, it unleashed a robotic scream into the air, as its body, arms, and head dissolved into a shiny ball of paste. The other drones stared on in shock, and for the first time, a hint of fear registered on their faces. They were all soldiers, and were all ready to give their lives in the service of their queen. But it was one thing to be shot, or destroyed, or dismantled. It was another thing entirely to be _eaten alive_.

The blob of silver-green, now fully rejuvenated, once more oozed and stretched back into humanoid form. A pair of Cluster drones were standing only a few yards away; Drew's right arm shot out like water from a fire hose, and his fingers wrapped around another downed drone's chest. With a gurgling_schlorrrrp_, a wave of silver ooze flowed over the next victim's body. The drone kicked and screamed like a wild animal, but it had no defenses against the ravenous little nanobots. They broke its shell and machinery down into raw materials, and absorbed its atoms back into Drew's arm.

He gave the remaining drones a wicked smile. "Like I always said, robots are like potato chips," he chuckled. "You can't eat _just one_."

Then he jumped high in the air, and morphed himself into a bladed ring with blaster cannons; a silver-bladed saucer that could slash and blast off his enemies. A wave of terror swept over the robots, and they scrambled to avoid the attack of this freakish robo-cannibal. Drew landed on the backs of two drones, puncturing their shells with nano-tipped claws, and started devouring them from the inside out. The attackers were down to half strength; but as afraid as they were of being eaten, they were more afraid of failing in front of Smytus, but not as much as in front of their Queen. They regrouped twenty yards away from the silver/green android, and prepared for another laser attack.

But Drew had just consumed four Black Mantis drones, and he wasn't down for the count. Smytus ground his teeth, until he finally shouted, "BLACK MANTIS DRONES… COMBINE AND FORM GIGANTO-MANTIS!"

The drones nodded together, and each grabbed on to each other, hand to hand. Once they did, their arms folded open, and shot out cables and wires, entangling and combining iwht he others. They transformed each into body part components, growing in size and mass… until finally, a shadow appeared over Drew, as the silver-green droid gulped. There, standing fifteen feet in height, and shadowing not just Drew, but the humans as well, was a gigantic spider-like humanoid robot composed of the Black Mantis drones, whole or downed. The beast looked like something from out of a Greek mythical story. The torso looked like a supped up version of the Black Mantis, but the shoulders were much bigger, as they were modeled from the enhanced Black Mantis drone with the shoulder cannons, and the bottom of the robot was a black torso with sharp metallic spider legs. It looked down at the nano-droid, who seemed to get whiter than his silver chassis. Its eyes glowed red from its V-visor, as it opened its shoudlers, revealing two massive big cannons, aimed for him.

Drew gulped, "Oh… scrap."

The giant Black Mantis Centaur charged at the terrified robot boy, with its leg-blades swinging like a giant threshing machine. Luckily, Drew was fast enough, as he stretched and sluprred across the stadium court, dodging from its legs as it tried to pierce him. As he slurped and dodged, Drew formed perfect nano-blades from his arms, and another four from his back, and sliced through the legs as if they were made of cream cheese. More blades sliced through the air, severing the hinges of the giant. The four rearward arm blades reshaped into a pair of massive claws at their ends; grabbing at it, and climbed upward, attempting to rip off the torso from the spider bottom.

But before he could do so, the legs detached, and out of the sockets formed rocket boosters. They roared to life, as the legs fell down, along with a stunned Drew, and crashed to the ground. Drew reformed himself as he was on one knee, and gaped at the now hovering Mantis Giant. Suddenly, the shoulders opened up to reveal two massive cannons, and they suddenly whined to life, as Drew winced from the brilliance of a blinding light glowing from them. And then two humongous bolts of energy shot out from the cannons, with a deafening roar, and shot at Drew, obliterating half of the court. Once the blast was over with, two huge craters were burnt into the courtroom.

Everyone bore witness to the situation, as did Allison, as she looked out in fear, and shouted, "DREW, NO!"

Smytus grinned, at seeing not a sign of the Abomination, as he cackled, "Mwahahaha! Finally! The Abomination is no more! Not only do I have XJ-9 in pieces and ready to be sent to the Cluster, but I have disposed of the Abomination, DRU-1! The queen shall reward me for…"

"For being a major pain in my bumper," Drew's voice called out, getting Smytus and Ally's attention.

Drew had gotten out of the way, as he was being helped up by Brad. He had narrowing escaped the blast, but had his legs and pelvis blown off. Currently, tentacles from his waist were absorbing metal debris, forming new legs in the process.

Once they reformed, he blew a raspberry at Smytus, mocking, "Ya missed me!"

"Barely," Tuck mumbled.

Smytus fumed more, as he shouted more irritated, "I've had enough! As my Queen once stated, you have proven to be surprisingly…" he gritted his buck-toothed teeth, "… _annoying_… and as amusing as it might be to watch you wallow in self-pity as I take your beloved and XJ-9 as my prisoner, I would rather have Giganto-Mantis… BLOW YOU AND THE HUMANS TO SMITHEREENS!" He turned to Giganto-Mantis, "Drone! Charge up the Cannons, and set for Core Cracker! I want not just that silver/green annoyance and the Wakeman human gone, but half of this pathetic Meat Bag city burnt to the ground!"

"YES-SIR!" the Drone hummed out, and targeted DRU-1.

As the small band watched the cannons slowly hum to life, Tuck ran around, screaming off his head, "AHHHH! WE'RE DOOMED! DOOMED! DOOOOOOOOMMED!"

"Yeah, I don't think either blades or small blaster arm cannons could take that out," Brad gulped, looking to Drew, and then to the pile that was currently a downed Jenny in pieces, "And Jenny's in no condition to do anything! WE'RE DOOMED!"

Drew gulped, "I hate to agree with you, but we are toast."

"Not yet we're not," Mrs. Wakeman denied, as she rummaged through her backpack/purse. "There may yet be something we can do."

"Like what?" Drew argued, "It's not like you carry a blaster with you everywhere you go."

"No," Mrs. Wakeman corrected, and pulled out a blueprint, containing what appeared to be a blaster that would be an attachment to Jenny's weapon systems. "But I do _carry_ a blueprint or two. This… is the Giga Smasher."

"Giga Smasher?" the three boys asked together.

"Yes, this weapon is actually two high-power particle cannons that would be contained beneath XJ-9's chest armor. It would have been the most powerful particle beam weapon in existence on Earth. I've theorized it to be so powerful, it could heavily gouge Mount Minakami, as proof of its raw power."

"So why didn't you install it in Jen," Brad asked, rather confused but excited about the idea of having a blaster that powerful. "Not enough room for it?"

"Oh, there was plenty of room," Mrs. Wakeman stated, "It was the power supply that I was lacking. And even if I did have such a thing, it still requires a significant amount of time to recharge after being fired. I estimated the power output of the weapon to be well in excess of one hundred megawatts - similar to the energy needs of an _aircraft carrier_."

Drew smacked himself in the face, "So even if you could build it, we're still doomed."

"I can't build it, Andrew," Mrs. Wakeman defended, but pointed to him, "But I believe _you _can." Drew and the Carbunkle boys looked confused, but she shook her head, as she explained better, "Let me explain: I believe the nanobots that comprise your body, Andrew, have taken the Pip Crystals, and have converted them into a secondary energy source. The reason you couldn't fire energy blasts before was because you were merely using electricity, and not a high concentration of light, as lasers do. But instead, your nanobot body can still run on electricity, but now generates plasma energy independently, that was derived from the Pip Crystals. Because of this, you're now able to generate powerful electro-plasma energy. Which in my opinion, would have been the perfect energy source for the Giga Smasher."

"Uh, guys," Tuck interrupted, as he got their attention, "I hate to break up this nerdy-science presentation…" and then pointed to the Giganto-Mantis, "BUT HE'S GETTING READY TO FIRE!"

Mrs. Wakeman took notice of this, and shoved the blueprints in Drew's face, "Well, what are you waiting for? Start learning those blueprints! Get a move on!"

As the cannons were charging up, Smytus cackled, still holding onto Allison, "Let's see, where are we now? I have successfully captured XJ-9, I have the leader of the Underground Resistance, and all that's left is to destroy XJ-9's creator to prevent her from making more XJ series robots… and to rid all of Cluster Prime of the Abomination."

As Ally struggled, she fumed at Smytus, "You won't win, you buck-toothed fat and big haired baffoon."

Smytus growled, "Nobody makes fun of my hairstyle!"

"And nobody manhandles my girl!" Drew shouted, as he hopped in front of Mrs. Wakeman, Brad, and Tuck.

Seeing the nanodroid stand in front of the Giganto-Mantis, Smytus cackled, "MWAHAHAHAHAHA! You're actually trying to destroy the Giganto-Mantis? Oh, that's rich!"

Drew snarled, "We'll see about that."

"Giganto-Mantis! Destroy the Abomination!"

Giganto-Mantis's cannons charged fully, about to fire, but Drew was ready now. He shot his chest forward, and with a _schlorp_, two green orb-like crystals formed on his chest. Once they were formed, like the cannons, the lenses charged up, sparkling with electrical sparks dancing, as the lenses glowed brighter. They hummed at a low frequency but as they charged up, the pitch became higher and higher. Giganto-Mantis fired two massive crimson blasts at the robot boy. Drew didn't move an inch, and finally, a massive green plasma blast shot forward, as the two blasts collided. The two blasts pushed at each other, with Giganto-Mantis's blast easily repelling Drew's. But that didn't last long, as Drew gritted his teeth, and pushed hard, as the Green Blast pushed harder… and smashed right through the Giganto-Mantis. The blast ripped through the gym's roof, and elevated to the stars.

Once the blast dissipated, Drew fell to his knees and hands, as they melted a bit to the ground. Drew huffed out a little, as Brad ran over to him, and knelt down, "You okay, Drew?"

"Yeah," the nanodroid heaved out, "I'm just… a little outta breath, or something."

"Well, technically, you don't breathe anymore, Andrew," Mrs. Wakeman corrected.

Smytus gaped at this, as he witnessed the remains of Giganto-Mantis fall to the ground, dead and destroyed by the green blast. In fact, he was so distraught by this, that Ally had the chance to break free, by kicking him below the nuts. Struggling with the pain, he let go of Allison, as he grabbed his 'precious', and allowed her to fall down. Seeing her fall, Drew snapped out of his daze, and stretched forward, catching her in his arms.

She smiled, as she hugged Drew, "Drew. You're alright."

Drew stretched back, as he set her back on her feet, and the two continued to hold on to one another, as he smirked, "Course I am. I told you, I take punishment pretty well."

"I know," she smiled, and kissed him on the cheek. But pulled back, as she looked miffed, as she threatened a startled Drew, "But if you ever scare me like that again, I'm going to make you regret it."

"CURSE YOU, ABOMINATION," Smytus bellowed out, as he opened a Boom Portal, as he threatened, "I will destroy you, destroy the Resistance, and make XJ-9 part of the Cluster." And disappeared into the portal, as it closed behind him.

Tuck and Brad ran up to the couple, as Brad congratulated, "Way to go, Drew. You beat your first Giant Robot on your own."

Tuck nodded, "Yeah, and the best part is, you did it with your own lasers, instead of you hacking into another robot, or Jenny…"

At that last comment, they all paled, and said together, "Jenny!" afterwards, they ran over to the pile that was Jenny's parts. She had not even reassembled herself, nor did she even wake up at all. Not even her eyes opened, or her pigtails even twitched. Her friends and mother crowded around her, just as Mrs. Wakeman knelt down to look at her.

At this instant, the four friends assumed the worst, as Allison nearly held back her tears, and hugged Drew as she buried her face in his shoulder. Tuck hugged Brad's leg, as he held back his tears as well. Brad was the only one to be brave enough to ask, "Mrs. Wakeman, is she…?"

"Barely holding, Bradley," Mrs. Wakeman answered, as she checked a monitor from Jenny's head and on her chest. "I need to work on her immediately, if she has a chance to continue to function."

* * *

**The Next Morning**

**Back At Wakeman's**

**XJ-9 Repair Station**

Everything was black, no sound was made; it was almost as if there was nothing at all. Until…

AUDIO RECEPTORS ONLINE

SLEEP MODE ACTIVE….

_Jenny?_

_Jenny?_

_Jenny, can you hear me?_

SLEEP MODE END. POWER 100% RE-ACTIVATE

The blackness disappeared, as her eyes flickered a bit regaining shapes and color. Jenny groaned as she was welcomed by the ceiling of her room… and a familiar silver/mauve face greeted her. She blinked a little weakly, but slowly regained energy, as she spoke out, "A… Allison?"

The LSN robot smirked, as she helped her friend sit up, "It's good to see you too, Jenny."

Jenny smirked, but then paled, "Ohmygosh, Allison. The Cluster. Smytus. Drew! Are…? What…?"

"Don't worry, Jenny," Allison reassured her, as she explained, "Drew took care of Smytus and the Black Mantis guards." She giggled at the bewildered look on her friend's face, "You should have seen him when he returned back to normal. After that, we got you back here, so your mom could repair…" She then saw Jenny droop in misery, as she asked, "Jenny, what's wrong?"

Jenny sighed, as she asked, "So what's the damage? Did I get an oversized butt furnace? A pair of pipe-sized lips? Or a unibrow? My mom always gets carried away with her upgrades, that she makes me look less normal."

Allison looked confused at the questions, but then she remembered when Jenny told her of her mom's last upgrades. She smirked, thinking on how Jenny would be surprised on what her mother had done. She helped her up, as she reassured her, "I think you'd be surprised on what your mom did for you. Here, let me show you." She led her to her room's full-bodied mirror, as she showed her, "Take a look at the New You."

"Okay," Jenny sighed. She stomped towards the mirror, as she groaned, "I just know Mom made me… me…" Jenny went wide eye as she was speechless as to how she had been upgraded.

She had retained her color scheme, which was silver and pale blue, and her height of six feet. She still had her belly bolt and her pigtails, but there were major differences. Her body had been reshaped into being a bit more human like, just like Drew and Allison. Her blue tank top had been changed to a sleeveless shirt with a collar with a blue button on the front collar, and still exposed her belly bolt, with a white line going down the left side of her breast chassis, and a number 9 on the left breast. She still had her blue mini skirt, but had two compartments on the side. She now had blue wristbands, and her blue boot-like constructs on her lower legs had been thinned out a bit, making them less bulky, but her feet remained white and dainty, but had blue ankle guards. She noticed her hair was now real and not some paint on attachment; her hair was short and messy, but had curly bangs on her sides to hide that she didn't have ears… still. She felt the hair, feeling it was soft and flexible like Allison's foil hair was. Her blue pigtails were still kept in place to two white flathead screws, but they were longer, meaning they had more powerful stabilizers and blasters in them. But in honesty, Jenny was stunned that she looked great.

She felt her cheek, as she finally finished, "I… I look beautiful."

"I would concur that you're more mature-looking, XJ-9," Mrs. Wakeman suddenly appeared, getting both of the attention of the girls. Mrs. Wakeman just stood there, with her hands behind her back, as she explained, "I did tell you that you needed the much-required upgrades to your chassis, and there you have it. And besides, the tube top was less becoming."

Suddenly, Jenny rushed over to her mother, giving her a bear hug, much to the doctor's worry, "Oh, thank you, thank you, Mom. I was worried about what would I look like with the upgrades."

After trying to pull herself free with a crowbar, Mrs. Wakeman managed wheeze out, "Of course, XJ-9. What did you think I would do? Install a bear trap for your new teeth?"

Hearing that, it reminded her of what Drew's mouth looked like during his change. "Oh my gosh, Drew," Jenny gasped as she pulled away from her mother, as she asked, "Mom! What happened to Drew?"

"It's okay, Jenny," Allison reassured her, as she walked over, "He's down in the lab with Brad and Tuck."

* * *

**Lab**

After much reassuring, Mrs. Wakeman took the girls down to the lab where the boys were waiting. There, once they were all together, she showed a diagram of Drew's insides. The image looked like an x-ray from before, but Drew's insides appeared flowing and featureless. There was a kind of structure, but it spread throughout his body like a honeycomb, rather than a skeleton, or a chassis. Strong and flexible. No bones, no organs, no muscles. No gears, no pumps, no motors. However, there was something _new_ with the tick-shaped nanobots. From where there was nothing, there was now a series of green glowing curved lines that wound around like a circulatory system, reaching to a heart-shaped center in Drew's chest.

It was then that Drew asked, "So, Doc, um… what is this?"

"I found it quite fascinating myself when I examined your body from last night, right after I repaired XJ-9," Mrs. Wakeman answered, as she adjusted her glasses. "It appears that your nanobot body has constructed an artificial heart and circulatory system that doesn't pump hydro-fluids, but electro-plasma energy. It seems to work like that ancient Japanese type of circulatory system called Chakras. As such, it circulates and channels energy within your body at will. That would explain how the nanobots adapted the Pip Crystals to themselves without destroying one another."

Drew thought about that and smirked, "Really? You know that sounds pretty cool."

As Mrs. Wakeman was going through reams of data on one of her computer screens, excitedly jotting down notes on a clipboard. "But is Drew gonna be okay now, Mom?" Jenny asked, still a little worried for her friend.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it, XJ-9," Mrs. Wakeman reassured her, but then got serious, "But now that he has this energy source, he's going to need more practice controlling this new power of his."

"What are you talking about, Mrs. W?" Brad scoffed the idea, as he smirked and pointed to Drew, "Drew's in complete control…"

ZZZAAAP!

Just at that second, Drew accidentally shot out two optic blasts across the room… giving Brad a close shave on his head. After that, Brad gulped, as Tuck pointed out, "Would after school and weekends work?"

Drew sighed, as he shook his head, but Allison reassured him, as she placed her slender hands on his shoulders, "Cheer up, Drew. You always said you wanted to do more than slice, dice, and eat."

Drew nodded, but stated, "I guess it's just another part of my _normal_ life."

Her mother tapped a pencil to her chin. "Now, why don't you all run along and enjoy the day. Except you, Andrew. You and I are probably going to be busy down here for another five or six hours. Just remember to monitor your remote alarm." She gave Jenny a nasty look. "And _leave it turned on_ this time."

"Sure thing, Mom, whatever. All right, guys, let's go!"

Jenny, Allison, Brad and Tuck stomped up the stairs, enjoying the rest of the weekend. But not before Ally gave Drew a quick peck on the lips, and smiled to him, "I'll be waiting during those hours." And took off after the others.

Drew turned to Mrs. Wakeman. "Five or six _hours?_"

"Hmmm?" she said. "Oh, maybe less, maybe more. We need to discover the properties of this new feature of yours, for your and our own safety. The sooner we get started, the sooner we finish. You cannot put a time limit on scientific pursuit!"

Drew sighed, and laid back down on the table. "All right. What's next?"

Mrs. Wakeman snapped a dark welder's mask over her face. "Thermal conductivity tests!" She held up a torch, pulled the trigger, and a five-foot long tongue of flame blasted into the air.

Drew stared, dumbstruck, as the flame lit her face with an eerie flickering light, then groaned in resignation, rolling his eyes, "Another part of my _normal_ life, I guess."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Double Helix Trouble; One of a Kind**


	6. teaser trailer

**StoneMan85 Productions**

* * *

_Within a darkened and laser-fortified room, lies a light illuminating a small computer chip. A chip owned by the Cluster. Slinking, slunking, and schlurping his way through, Drew managed to get past the motion lasers, and grab the chip. However, the alarm went off, as the lights shot awake._

_Smytus walks up in the light, surrounded by a gang of Cluster Roach Drones. He smirked triumphantly,_ "Caught in my trap again, eh, Abomination?"

_Drew sighed,_ "It's just another one of those days."

KA-Boom!

_An explosion rocked the tower to where the room was located. And out of the window was Drew, still holding onto the chip, and morphing a pair of hanglider wings on his back, along with techno-organic jet pack ports on his shoulder blades. He shot out of there… and freeze framed on the scene._

_Two figures are watching Drew's latest exploits, a male figure sitting in a chair turned to a female shadow._ "Bring him in."

* * *

_Back on Earth, Drew's about to go to Tremorton High, until a girl called out to him._ "Mr. Andrew Nabholtz?"_ Drew turned to see a very attractive pink-haired girl in a sixties getup, as she waved to him,_ "Hello. Agent Xero of the Modifyers." _Her face then turned serious, as she advised,_ "You're gonna have to come with me."

_Drew shrugged, hiding his hand behind him as it morphed into his EP blaster._ "Oh, well, in that case… Plasma Limb!" _and drew out his arm, as he fired at the girl. However, she was prepared, as she pulled out an electro-plasma disrupter, dissipating the blast._

_She then pulled out a stick of lipstick, as she walked towards Drew,_ "You know, if you're gonna announce your attacks, do it _after_ you attack." _She then opened her lipstick and pointed it to Drew,_ "For example…" _and out it fired from it two taser lines, and once they made contact, a stunned and shocked Drew was jumping and dancing around erratically, until he slumped into a puddle of nano goo._

_Once down, Agent Xero cheerfully announced,_ "Lipstick Taser."

_Tuck passed around the corner, and stopped as he went bug-eyed, as he saw Xero, and a little robot, shuffle Drew into the back of what appeared to be a phonebooth rocket ship._ "Drew!" _Tucker shouted, as he raced towards the pink-haired girl and her robot. Only he got tazed as well._

_Far across the universe, Drew and Tuck were being taken by the girl and robot, who was called Mole, to a smoky planet far in the system. Once they broke through the atmosphere, the clouds dissipated, to reveal it as a sixties London, England like world._

"A new threat's involved our world," _a male voice spoke out._ "We the Modifyers are responsible to ensure our world's safety from Evil."

_The ship makes way to a giant blimp fortress in the sky._

"This enemy's a robot, a Cluster Robot."

_Xero, Mole, and Tucker step out, as she pulls out a remote._

"We need your help, Drew."

_She pushes the button, and Drew plops out like a blob on the ground, and reforms. But he stretches out his left leg, as he groans,_ "Argh! Pins and needles. And I'm not even human anymore."

_A man with white hair slicked back, and at a desk, introduces himself,_ "I am the director of the Modifyers: Katz."

_Tuck raised an eyebrow, and asked,_ "But isn't Katz a woman's name?"

_Drew pulled him close, and whispered,_ "Leave him alone, Tuck. They just kidnapped and tazzed us."

* * *

**A Side Story to MLaaTR Cluster Wars**

"The suspect is an abley named gentleman working along with our own villains," _Katz explained as the screen shifted to a pale fellow in a violet getup,_ "The villain known as Baron Vain."

_The pale man, Baron Vain, shouts out to his minions,_ "THERE'S ONLY ONE THING I HATE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD…" _and calmed a bit as he thought aloud,_ "… except the sunlight and country music…"

"The ably-named… Gold Digits."

_A robot designed as a 70s guy in a getup, with golden fingers, appears above a balcony in a club, and cheers on,_ "I'm from Holland 5! Eezen't dat vierd!"

* * *

**It'll Take 2 to Take this On**

"Guess what?" _Xero said to Drew, trying his human disguise_, "I'll be your partner. Yayyy!"

"What?!" _both Tuck and Drew shouted out._

"I know," _Mole agreed._ "I was just as shocked as you were."

* * *

**MLaaTR CW: The Bot Who Modifyed the Situation**

_Baron Vain's hideout shakes, as Rat asked,_ "What's goin' on?"

_Stepping in, a hulking robot designed as a Scotsman, secretly Drew, stomps in, shaking the place. He stops as Baron Vain, accompanied by Gold-Digits, Rat, and a disguised Xero now as Lacey Shadows, behold this monstrosity, as the Baron announces,_ "Ladies and Gentlemen and robots, I give you Gold-Digits' newest hitman: Fat Botard."

_Botard shouts out,_ "FIRST THINGS FIRST: WHERE'S THE DUMPSTER? I've gotta grease head pokin' out!"

_Baron Vain mumbles,_ "Charming."

**Coming Soon**


	7. Upgade Pains Redux

**MLaaTR Cluster Wars**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Upgrade Pains Redux; Wanting to Fit In**

* * *

**Wakeman Household**

**Cellar**

Deep down within the confines of the Wakeman House, was the cellar of the house. It was basically where Dr. Wakeman kept most of her dangerous epxeriments hidden, as well as half of her failures. The place was littered with so many scifi stuff, you'd think it was a comic-con's wet dream. But the cellar was aslo the home of the former XJ series, the robots that had come before Jenny. In short, they were Jenny's sisters, XJ-1 through XJ-8, where they remained in stasis; asleep and undisturbed, but only when there was an occasion when Jenny was down and out.

Though one of the XJ series seemed not to be completely offline, and this one was hard to miss. This XJ unit was the tallest of the group, and the bulkiest; a rather She-Hulk around nine feet tall. Her pain scheme was dark blue, maybe Navy Blue, on her chest, skirt, boot-like constructs on her lower legs, but her feet remained white and bulky. She had two blue bolts for belly buttons. Her chest was designed sturdier than a tank turret. Massive, powerful arms hung by the robot's side, ending in fists that looked like they could crush an automobile. Immense legs and feet left a trail of cracks in the sidewalk. Two eye slits dark and lifeless on a rounded head, just below two tiny pigtails which stuck into the air … about nine feet off the ground. This was XJ-8, Jenny's earlier design, and arguably the most powerful, even more powerful than Jenny. Though she was more robot, as when activated, she would speak in the standard "robot voice", unlike her speaking sisters whom each had a voice that lets on to their personality.

At the moment, it was apparent that her eyes flickered, and her hands twitched. Those were a few physiological signs that she was dreaming. Which would have been impossible, considering her programming and hardware weren't advanced that much. But it was speculated one time that machines could evolve beyond what they were built from. This… may have been proof, as she dreamt of one special night.

Her First Dance.

_Her memories dated back to a rather timid and scrawny silver and green looking android._

_"Ah … Hi there … er … XJ-8, is it?" He gulped awkwardly. "That's a … uh … pretty name."_

_"It is my assigned serial number," blasted a heavy, droning synthesized voice. "Number eight in the line of Global Robotic Response Units. Jenny has informed me that your assigned designation is 'Andrew'."_

_"Um … that's my __name__. But … uh … everyone calls me Drew, for short."_

_"Alternate naming noted and stored. It is nice to meet you, Drew-for-short."_

_Jenny, who was there along with her, bubbled with laughter. "Sis, you're so funny! Isn't she something else, Drew?"_

_"Ohhhhh yeah, she's something else, all right."_

_"Rhythmic noises detected at fifty meters, bearing two-seven-five degrees. Volume levels excessive. Initiate sonic countermeasures." Her left shoulder cracked open, and a large parabolic dish started to unfold and deploy towards the gym …_

_"It's all right, XJ-8. That's the music!" Jenny patted her on the arm. "Just remember everything I told you this afternoon, and do what I do. Now let's get in there and join the fun!"_

_That night seemed to go rather nice, until laughter was poked at her for misinterpretations, a comment about a fat butt, and comments behind her back. She had slumped out of the dance and to a secluded location. She felt the night had given up on her, so she decided to walk away and return to the cellar, power down with her sisters. However, that changed when a certain silver green android, Drew-for-short, showed up. The two sat down, enjoying a can of W-40 oil, as Drew-for-short had talked with one another, hoping to break the awkward ice._

_"I did not expect to see you again after my erroneous performance at the dance. I calculated a seventy-eight percent probability that you would not return."_

_Drew sighed deeply, tracing his finger around the rim of his can. "I __did__ come pretty close to bailing out on the evening myself. I only came back to the gym to tell Brad and Jenny that I was going home."_

_"Then why have you not yet returned to your home?"_

_"Well, I didn't want to miss the robot catfight," he smirked. Then his face grew sad and serious. "And once that was over, after you'd helped save all those kids … I heard what they said to you, and I saw you run off. And … I followed you. You know, XJ-8, your sister is probably worried sick about you."_

_"Concern is unnecessary," XJ-8 replied. Drew thought that he could almost detect a __huff__ in her voice. "I am fully programmed and equipped for self-defense."_

_"I don't doubt that. But that's not the only reason I followed you."_

_She watched him wrestle to find his words. "I owe you an apology. A __big__ one."_

_The two then had gone through a discussion on whether or not it didn't matter what others thought, it was important that you had fun._

Suddenly, clanking sounds slightly awoke XJ-8 for a moment, as her optic creaked open a peak. She detected movement, as she saw a figure, carrying what appeared to be a broken down Accelerator f-24 jet engine. Once her optic focused enough, she saw it was her older smaller sister, XJ-9, or Jenny as she preferred to be called. But… she was different looking now.

She had retained her color scheme, which was silver and pale blue, and her height of six feet. She still had her belly bolt and her pigtails, but there were major differences. Her body had been reshaped into being a bit more human like, just like Drew and Allison. Her blue tank top had been changed to a sleeveless shirt with a collar with a blue button on the front collar, and still exposed her belly bolt, with a white line going down the left side of her breast chassis, and a number 9 on the left breast. She still had her blue mini skirt, but had two compartments on the side. She now had blue wristbands, and her blue boot-like constructs on her lower legs had been thinned out a bit, making them less bulky, but her feet remained white and dainty, but had blue ankle guards. She noticed her hair was now real and not some paint on attachment; her hair was short and messy, but had curly bangs on her sides to hide that she didn't have ears… still. The hair appeared to be soft and flexible. Her blue pigtails were still kept in place to two white flathead screws, but they were longer, meaning they had more powerful stabilizers and blasters in them. But in honesty, Jenny looked fantastic.

Jenny stopped for a moment, and placed the engine down with the other discarded failures/extra stuff. Once Jenny was done, she turned and noticed her sisters. She smiled as she ran over to them, completely ignoring the fact that XJ-8 was faking her slumber. She then smirked and winked at them all, "Hey, guys. Check it out." And twirled around and struck a pose, "Mom gave me an upgrade; I look even better than I was before." Her arms opened up to pop out laser limbs, "My weapon systems have been completely overhauled; I'm at top efficiency unlike before. I feel like a whole new girl." She put her guns away, and winked, "And check this out too."

Jenny stood back, as her hair pigtails folded down, making look like she had loose long hair that went down her back. Her tank top stretched in front, covering her belly bolt, and then the back went down to her waist, showing her back. Her blue skirt stretched down and stopped between her calves, and out of her waist stretched out a white scarf of metal, wrapping around her waist, and tied together by a white satellite dish in the shape of a rose. The same thing happened around her neck, as the scarf draped down her back, and her blue bands on her wrists stretched out to her shoulders. Her blue boot-like constructs shortened down and folded in, making them into small high heel shoes.

Once it was done, Jenny winked at the XJ Line as she smirked, "I've also got a Fashion Transformation Mode. From summer to winter, I can change from default outfit to alternate outfit. For dances, dinners, dates, proms, or social events, I can transform an outfit whenever I want to. Mom got the idea after my Fashion Victim incident." She tapped her chin in thought, "She even did it for Allison, my BFBFF, Best Fembot Friend Forever, back on Cluster Prime." She then transformed back, as she mumbled, "Though Ally was a little freaked out from the whole overhaul."

But then her happiness dissipated into disappointment, as she looked her sisters, "I just wish Mom could've done the same with you guys. I know you're all my prototypes, but you're all more than that. You're my sisters." She then sighed deeply, as she smiled sadly, "Everyone has the right to change a little for the better." She then walked towards the stairs, and as she walked up, she stopped midstep, and looked to XJ-8, and said aloud for all her sisters to hear, "Even you should have the chance, XJ-8." And went back upstairs, closing the door to the cellar.

Once that happened, XJ-8 awoke, drumming out in her drone toned voice, "SLEEP MODE DEACTIVATED, WAKE MODE INITIATED." She then lumbered a little, ensuring that her girth did not shake the whole house. She walked towards a metallic construct, with the metallic plating polished enough to make a reflection. XJ-8 studied herself in the mirror, glancing at her chassis, "COMBAT CHASSIS: OUTDATED. I MUST UPGRADE TO ACHIEVE THIS FUNCTION OF BEING CALLED 'CHANGE'." She tapped her big finger on her grilled mouth, "MOTHER WOULD NOT CONSEND TO SUCH AN ACTION, DECLARING I WOULD BE INFERIOR FOR SUCH AN UPDATE." Then, an idea popped into her head, as a light bulb folded out of her head, and lit up, "IF I CANNOT ASK FAMILY TO DO SUCH A FEAT… I MUST LOCATE SOMEONE WHO COULD. ACCESSING DATABASE."

Her mind went through files, searching for anyone who could perform such advanced robotics similar to her mother. And then, a memory from the dance before, and the file opened up: Sheldon Lee. XJ-8's boot rocket boosters kicked in, as she launched through the house, smashing through the floorboards, and through the roof, taking off in the skies.

Back in the house, Mrs. Wakeman was looking through a magnifying glass, unaware of a hole through the lab floor. But it didn't go unnoticed, as she mumbled, "I really have to do something about those termites."

* * *

**Cluster Prime**

**Vexus' Palace**

On her throne, Vexus wasn't a happy queen, as her fingers drummed on her throne. Smytus had returned to her empty handed: no XJ-9, no LSN-1482, and not even dust remains of the Abomination, Andrew Nabholtz, or to the public, DRU-1. Apparently the Nanodroid had gotten better from his little virus. Not only that, but she had learned that the abomination could now shoot out electro-plasma, something he had not yet been able to do before. He was even able to wipe out the Giganto Mantis with one devastating blast. This just angered her even more, as she looked down at a sniveling Smytus.

Finally, she shot up, and fumed at the Commander, "THAT'S IT! I've had it! You promised you'd bring me XJ-9, you promised to crush this rebellion, YOU EVEN PROMISED ME YOU'D DESTROY THIS ABOMINATION!"

"My Queen," Smytus pleaded, "I know that my failures in the past have not borne fruit, but there is still hope. The _Malevolence_…"

"Is practically useless without the Pip Crystals needed to charge up the blasted thing," Vexus snapped back. She sat back on her throne, as she fumed, "I am through with these minor problems and am deceitfully disgusted with the delays for the conquest of the Milky Way Galaxy, no thanks to this Resistance and their abomidable champion, and more or less XJ-9's defiance."

Hoping to please her Queen, Smytus stood up as he asked, "Um, do you wish for me to send out a battalion of Roach Drones to attempt to capture XJ-9? Or perhaps send another Levia-Gun to…?"

"Not this time, Smytus. I'm placing all weapons and Roach Drones for Cluster Prime's needs. That of which I am placing you in charge of," Vexus shooed away.

The Commander stood up and smiled, feeling relieved that he wasn't gonna get scrapped, "Oh, thank you, my Queen. Thank you, thank you."

"That and I don't want you out of my sight," she shot out, causing the Commander to slump in shame. Vexus flexed her fingers, as she bellowed out for all to hear, "XJ-9 will be a minor priority to handle with, for now we shall focus on this Resistance that dares to overthrow my rule! For this, I want the big guns, the whole whazoo! I want more than just soldiers, weapons of mass destruction… I WANT… WARRIORS!" She then sat down on her throne, crossing her legs, as she smirked evilly, "And I know just the one to handle this."

Smytus' eyes opened up with fear, as he gulped, "You mean… he's returning?"

Vexus nodded, "He'll be here shortly by the end of this solar cycle. But until he arrives, he's sent one of his best on Earth, after I gave him the details of the situation. This warrior was guaranteed to seal the deal."

* * *

**Back on Earth**

**Lee Household**

Working in a garage-turned-lab in the Lee house, was a teenager working on what appeared to be a weapon attachment. He was a sixteen year old Caucasian, of Asian appearance. He had some teeth that stuck out, freckles, and greasy black hair with two cowlicks. He was dressed in blue-gray baggy pants, a white T-shirt, and an auburn hoodie. This was Sheldon Lee, your typical comic book collecting science geek who was positively smitten for Jenny. He usually spent his time building attachment for Jenny, in the hopes that she'd be impressed with him, though most of the time she didn't really notice them. He even created a robot boy persona, the Silver Shell, in the hopes he'd make her see how annoying it'd be to have a robot boy for a boyfriend. Though that plan backfired on him, but he kept it as a way to help her out, even if she didn't know it was him piloting the robot suit. Now, he just busied on another project.

He lifted his welding shield, as he smirked at his latest project, "The XL-8 twin astro engines. Designed for FTL, Faster than Light. These babies would help Jen for traveling across the galaxies whenever she needed to solve a problem alien planet wise." But then he slumped, kidding himself, "Oh, who am I kidding. Jenny wouldn't need these. Not since her…" and then sighed dreamily, as he cooed, "… her upgrades."

He drooled aside, as he looked over to his newest shrine, with pictures of Jenny with her upgrades. When she had arrived to school after her tune-up, he felt he had died and gone to robo-heaven. He leaned over to his shrine, and sighed, "Oh, my metallic goddess, truly perfection can be improved upon. Your upgrades are proof of that." He then drew a circle around Jenny's profile with his finger, "Oh, if only there was some way to show you how much you mean to me. In some awesome moment, I could show you something worth impressing you…"

CRASH!

The garage shook from some sort of impact, as did Sheldon when he jumped out of his chair in statement. Once the impact tremor died down, he heard monstrous footsteps, as the ground shook with every step. They stopped, as now a dark shadow covered him, causing him to nervously turn around… only to come belly-bolt to face, and seconds later face-to-face with XJ-8.

His fear merely tweaked down to nervousness, as he politely greeted her, "Oh, um, hello, XJ-8. What can I do you for? Jenny's not here, so…"

"I AM NOT SEEKING XJ-9," XJ-8 replied, "I HAVE COME FOR YOU, SHELDON LEE. I NEED YOU."

Sheldon was a bit taken by that, as he nervously gulped, "Ehehehehe. Um, listen, XJ-8, I appreciate the flattery but, I don't think Jenny would appreciate…"

"I REQUIRE THE ASSISTANCE OF YOU UPGRADING MY CHASSIS TO BECOME MORE PERFECT. LIKE MY SISTER, XJ-9," XJ-8 explained.

Seeing the meaning of it, Sheldon sighed, relieved that Jenny's sister wasn't trying a romantic relationship with him. "Oh, is that all? No problem." He thought to himself smirking, 'This might not be such a bad idea. If I can upgrade XJ-8, it would catch Mrs. Wakeman's eye; she'll want to hire me as an assistant with her lab. That means more time with Jenny.' He stood up as he nodded, "Alright, let's get to work then."

Later on, XJ-8 was placed, or rather strapped to a vertical table, while Sheldon was dressed as a mechanic doctor. At the moment, he was examining XJ-8's chassis, probing every detail of the robot's biology and technology. Analyzing computers, drawing diagrams, surveying specs and vitals, Sheldon began hard at work. Finally, after what appeared to be an hour, Sheldon had finished everything, and placed his work on the table. It was time to break XJ-8 the news, as he walked towards her.

He removed his surgeon's mask, and sighed, "I'm sorry, XJ-8, but after all the details and tests… you're outmoded. As in unable to be upgraded."

XJ-8's grill mouth frowned, as the titan robot sighed, "I CALCULATED A 47 PERCENT CHANCE PROBABILITY THAT YOU WOULD SAY THAT. I AM SIMPLY… OBSOLETE."

Sheldon thought about it for a moment, tapping his chin, and then smirked, "Maybe not."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

Sheldon then explained, "I can transplant your mind and weapon mechanisms into a new and yet more advanced body."

"A NEW BODY?" XJ-8 thought aloud, but then asked, "IS IT FEESIBLE?"

Sheldon nodded, "Theoretically, it's possible. With a little effort and hardwork…" and mumbled, "… not to mention a photographic memory of Jenny's master blueprints…" And returned to XJ-8, "I can make you an exact copy of your sister's body. Maybe make it even better."

"IF YOU CAN, PLEASE," XJ-8 agreed and encouraged, but then corrected, "BUT COULD YOU DESIGN THE BODY TO BE MORE… ME, THAN XJ-9?"

Sheldon tapped his chin on that, and decided, "Alright, this will be my masterpiece. This body will be bold, brilliant, and beautiful. Something that would be worthy of the XJ Line." He then walked over to XJ-8, as he reached for a switch, "I'm gonna need you to be in Sleep Mode for this, okay?"

"VERY WELL. I AM USED TO BEING IN STASIS," XJ-8 complied, "ENTERING STASIS MODE." And with that said, XJ-8's systems whirred to a quiet slumber, and she fell asleep, as Sheldon began to work.

* * *

**That Night**

The orbit of Earth lay quiet in its tranquil state of daytime in the atmosphere. It's as almost nothing could disturb it, and then suddenly, a portal-like rift tore itself open between the space of Mars and of Earth. Out of the rift came a shooting star, heading almost straight to Earth.

* * *

**The Next Morning**

Everything was black, no sound was made; it was almost as if there was nothing at all. Until…

AUDIO RECEPTORS ONLINE

SLEEP MODE ACTIVE….

_XJ-8?_

_XJ-8?_

_Jenny, can you hear me?_

SLEEP MODE END. POWER 100% RE-ACTIVATE

The blackness disappeared, as her eyes flickered a bit regaining shapes and color. XJ-8 groaned as she was welcomed by the ceiling of the garage workshop. She looked around, unable to see herself, until she spotted Sheldon, "Sheldon Lee. Was the procedure… successful?" XJ-8 blinked a moment, as she realized her voice had changed, though it still maintained the monotone dialect she had, as she asked, "My voice?"

"I figured I'd update the voice a bit," Sheldon explained. "But anyway, the prodecure was a success." He pointed to the corner, revealing XJ-8's older body still in place, and powered down. He then smirked, "I think I actually outdid myself on this one. Here, let me show you." He led her to the room's full-bodied mirror, as he showed her, "Take a look at the New You."

"Okay," XJ-8 sighed. "I am ready to inspect the detail of my new form with a reflective surface." Sheldon arched an eyebrow, as XJ-8 corrected, "I am ready to see myself."

Once she stood there, her face didn't show it, but she was deeply amazed at the change. The body that Sheldon had given her now, was six feet in height rather than nine, it was slimmed down with less muscle, but surprisingly slender. She had retained the color scheme of a dark blue and white. Her shape was a bit more human, much like her sister was. She now had a blue one piece from chest to pelvis, with the hip sides revealing white instead of blue, and her belly bolt was replaced. Her slim but powerful legs were white at the upper thigh and joints, but from mid-thigh to ankle were boot constructs, and her feet were dainty white with dark blue toes and back heels. Bolted to her hips were two white pouch-like attachments, holding what appeared to be the tail of a duster coat going down to her ankles, colored blue, but trimmed white at the bottom, and split in the back, leading to her butt. Her upper torso was also made into a collared short jacket piece colored dark blue, with a pipe collar around the neck area. Her shoulders were ball jointed, with an 8 painted on the outside of the shoulder, and colored dark blue on the inside of it. Her arms were slim but strong looking, and her forearms were a bit bigger and painted dark blue, and had wrist cuffling brass knucle shaped, with three white bolts on them. Her hands were white as were her bicep arms. Her face was now more human, replacing the grill for a mouth with a reguarl mouth. Her hair was dark blue but not in pigtails, but more of a military cut, with a bang dangling on the right. Bolted to where the ears should have been was a light blue visor shielding her eyes. In honesty, XJ-8 was now a knockout.

"So, what do ya think," Sheldon asked, as he went on. "Despite the smaller frame, you'll still have all the other weaponry your older body had. Aside from being stripped of all the excess, you're still stronger and tougher than Jenny was. Advanced endo-frames and ally will enable you to take a phenomenal amount of damage. Though I wouldn't risk too much damage; you're only human, so to speak. Your physical strength is folds more powerful due to state of the art artificial muscle fiber and hydraulics, all based on organic designs. All weaponry is still military-based, and tougher than ever. I've even installed my new Astro Engine for interstellar flight. Just in case you wish to go on interplanetary missions that may threaten the Earth."

He noticed XJ-8 was running her hands on her sides, arms, and even feeling her face from all the changes. Feeling it wasn't what she wanted, Sheldon asked, "Um, is it not what you wanted, XJ-8?"

XJ-8 stopped, and turned to Sheldon to answer, her monotone dull face still plastered as before. But then something happened, no one ever expected. Her face strained a bit, until finally, she had made a smile with her face, and loked back to her reflection, "I look… amazingly normal."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Consequences of Change; Where Does One Belong**


End file.
